Discovering the World of Joann Sfar

The series Rabbi´s Cat - Le Chat du Rabbin (10 volumes already as for the end of 2020) - made Joann Sfar famous, but his career includes besides being a cartoonist and comic artist, writing novels and film directing as well. Currently living in the lovely Nice, Sfar has a mixed Askenazi - on the side of his Ukranian mother, a singer - and Sephardi - his father is an Algerian-born lawyer involved in various legal trials against neonazis. Last week, I had the chance to go through some of his works that I am happy to review and share with my readers.

The Rabbi´s Cat - The Movie

The movie based on the cartoons series in development was released in 2011, but as a movie, it condensates interesting unique motives related to Jewish life in Algeria, as well as Jewish destiny in general. I´ve watched the movie in the original French, and I laughed more than once, as there are so many hilarious grotesque moments. However, there are some serious issues introduced, how for instance the sheer discrimination against local Jews by the colonial authorities from France, who requested them to pass a French test in order to be accepted in public positions. Or the interdiction of Jews and Arabs to visit certain local public spaces, such as coffees. 

According to Décret Crémieux (1870) Jews of Algerian origin - were allowed to acquire French citizenship, that was withdrawn by the infamous Vichy government. Since 1948, around 25,681 Algerian Jews emigrated to France, with a very small local community still resident in Oran, Blida or Algiers. 

The questions the humanistic - hairless - cat who is able to read Le Rouge et Le Noir by Stendhal are echoeing curiosities about Jewish identity going beyond its religious definition confines, as well as about exile and . It raises doubts and questions in a smart, intellectual way, while displaying beautiful drawings on a pleasant musical backround resonating works by the Jewish Algerian-born Enrico Macias. 

It may be enjoyable for Jewish viewers from the bar mitzva age onwards.

Chagall en Russie - 1&2

The following BDs - cartoons - are the least enjoyable from the list of Sfar´s works. For instance, I haven´t enjoyed too much Les Olives Noires - made in collaboration with Emmanuel Guibert - featuring the life under the Roman-occupied Judea. I´ve personally found the story very disorganised and redundant, until I did my best by following all the installments in the series.

The second work I enjoyed much better - for the script, as was not terribly impressed by the drawings - was Chagall en Russie, a fictionalised story of the Belarus-born painter, with a deep touch of Russian fairy-tales of Chassidic inspiration. It also has serious Fiddler on the Roof snapshots and a grotesque Golem. (´Il y a des droles de gens dans ma Russie´). From the Lubavitcher to the repeated pogroms, there is so much Jewish history to learn about, while getting fully immersed in a story that may be or may be not Chagall´s.

Gainsbourg, a Heroic Life (2010)

Sfar is a self-confessed fanatic of Gainsbourg and had the chance to direct a multi-awarded movie about his idol´s life. One of the most important figures of French´s pop, Gainsbourg - born as Lucien Ginsburg whose parents were Jews from Ukraine - was shaped by his experience as a Jew during the German occupation. The self-destructive haste to outline himself, his extravagant life and professional achievements. By creating a visual narrative outlining the strong influence of the childhood experiences into his mature life, the story is punctuaded by alternation between movie sequences with actors - among which Laetitia Casta, Eric Elmosnino or Lucy Gordon - and animations which give to the movie a surrealistic dimension. I must reckon that more than once I´ve checked online several times many details that were shared in the movie, as my knowledge about Gainsbourg´s professional journey seemed to have been limited to his musical repertoire only. 

Gainsbourg. A Heroic Life reveals so much about the extravagant artist - who bought a Rolls Royce with the movie he got for a movie he filmed in Yugoslavia or created a reggae version of La Marseillaise - but whose life will keep the gaze of a child who experienced the Occupation, being forced to leave his childhood too fast behind.

 

What to read your children this Pesach

Pesach is a special time of the year for children: they are allowed to stay out late, presents are expected and there are always more occasions than usual to spend more time with family and relatives. It is a time for family and being together, which can be used also as an opportunity for learning about the traditions of the holiday and Judaism in general. For this post, I collaborated with Kar-Ben Publishing House to bring you the best reading list for the holidays. With a good book, the memories are even stronger.

A Different Kind of Passover 

Pesach night is a different night from all the other nights, but this time, Jessica is sad that she would not be able to show to his grandfather how good she is at telling the four questions in Hebrew. For her, Pesach means to be together with the family, especially with the grandparents. 'Even though seder night is supposed to be different from all other nights, what I love most about Passover at my grandparents' are the things that are always the same'. But this time, the grandfather is sick in bed and he cannot lead the Seder, it seems. However, Jessica found a solution to bring back the ambiance of the old times, involving the grandpa into this year Pesach. A delicate story about family love and respect, explained through beautiful and dramatic illustrations. 

A Place for Elijah

During a power cut occuring during the first night of Pesach, the neighbours are pouring one by one through the door left ajar on purpose to welcome the propher Elijahu. Not all of them are Jewish but they are well welcomed around the table. They are more and more of them coming, and even the chair left free for the prophet is taken. But this is all for good and surprisingly, it seems that Elijah is around...

A Place of Two Seders

When parents are separating, children always suffer but how the situation will be further managed is only the responsibility of both parents. A girl - unnamed - is worried how she will spend the holidays now, after her mother and father got divorced. Hopefully, there are two Seders therefore Pesach can be spend in two places. One year after the other, she is adjusting to the new painful reality but as her mother wisely said 'families are charoset. Some have more ingredients than others, some stich together better than others, some are sweeter than others. But each one is tasty in its own way'. Besides a glossary of terms, the book has also a couple of charoset recipes, including a very special Yemenite one. A book recommended for 5 to 9 years.

ABC Passover Hunt

On Pesach, children are preparing very well not only for the four questions, but also for understanding the various customs and episodes part of the seder. This book is an excellent resource to check the knowledge about the holiday, with questions and answers, puzzles and other entertaining challenges. It is aimed for children just learning to read, but also to the smaller one, only recently introduced to the holiday. If you plan to have a special seder for children, this book is a must, as it is well written, smart and can be used for group activities. 

Tel Aviv Noir

 ´In Tel Aviv, only real estate moves quicker than death´.

I wanted for a long time to read the Tel Aviv Noir collection of short stories, part of a wider project of Akashic Books featuring various cities around the world. The collection is edited by Edgar Keret and Assaf Gavron, which often writes with an unique ironical voice, inspired by the everyday life Israeli realities. 

There is a myth of the hip Tel Aviv, the beating heart of start-ups - but Google has offices in the ´boring´ Haifa -, drugs, clubbing, secularism - although Bnei Brak where the religious heart beats sometimes harder than Jerusalem´s, is just around the block - sky scrapers and beaches - there are also religious beaches in Tel Aviv, just sayin´. Like every time when it comes to myths, some of these assumptions are true, but there is much more left behind those simplistic descriptions. Maybe once upon a time, it was more truth in this, but right now, decades after the creation of the state of Israel, the landscape is more diverse and it´s nothing to be ashamed about.

There is a sense of decaying that sometimes is in the air, early in the morning when the parties are over and the girls are lonely going from work, and homeless people hanging the Central Bus Station are about to wake up. This feeling permeates some of the stories in the Tel Aviv Noir. Maybe too often. But there is also a sense of inter-connection, that Edgar Keret outlines admirably in the Introduction: ´The workers washing the dishes in the fluorescent-lit kitchen of that same club are Eritrean refugees who have crossed the Egyptian border illegally, along with a group of bedouins smuggling some high-quality hash, which the deejay will soon be smoking on his little podium, right by the busy dance floor filled with drunks, coked-up lawyers, and Ukrainian call girls whose pimp keeps their passport in a safe two streets away´. I do recognize some fragments from the Tel Aviv I know - and sometimes missing dearly, more with other fragments that are not displayed in the book.

Don´t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the stories, most of them, authored by more or less known - outside the Hebrew-speaking realm - like Gadi Taub, Matan Hermoni, Lavie Tidhar and many many more. But after a while, I felt like I am reading almost the same story, told on a different voice and a different wording, still...Like simple humans are missing being left only with the exceptions, but not the extraordinary. At the end, I am still missing dearly my Tel Aviv - of my dreams, stories and rooftop/beach parties, with real, simple humans of Tel Aviv.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Cooking Jew-ish

It´s just me that once Pesach is coming close, had my mind focused only on food, recipes to test, menus to set. Kosher for Pesach, obviously. In my case, the menu should be as strict as possible - boiled eggs, matza shmura and boiled potatoes, anyone? - but I enjoy reading - more than usual - about the latest Jewish kitchen trends, especially in Pesach times. Last Sunday, I attended a very interesting German-speaking live cooking event with the German-born Israeli-based hobbycook Tom Franz, with some awesome inspiration. Today, just finished a cooking book that includes also some Pesach-related recipes, by Jake Cohen. In a couple of days I already have a long list of recipes that I have to test at least once before the Seder. To be continued...

Jew-ish. Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch is Jake Cohen first cookbook, published early this month. A collection of various recipes - some from his Askenazi family home, some adapted, some inspired by the Persian-Iraqi heritage of his husband. Not all of them for the strictly kosher-kitchen, but they can be easily adapted easily. 

Addressed to a millenial audience, the book is based on recipes mostly tested during the various Shabbat evenings the couple hosted. As in the case of many millenials, they explore their identity through food and various culinary practices. ´This book has helped me define the pride I have for the rich culture of traditions and dishes I´ve inherited. It´s a love story. It´s a family tree. It´s me at my core. It´s Jewish´. 

Not all the recipes are traditionally Jewish, but can be easily integrated into Jewish menus tasted on different occasions. For instance, the Baharat smashed potatoes sound so delicious that it´s a pity not to have it on a Shabbat meal, eventually in the company of some heimische schnitzel. Shaksuka alla vodka may taste better than the penne alla vodka. The savory Babka and rugelach are already classical pastries offered in the hip bakeries of Brooklyn of Williamsburg in NYC. I am a very courageous person, but I have to really think four times before writing ´cardamom-spiced pear noodle kugel´...Can you repeat after me?

The recipes are well writen, with a lot of details that may help even the less experimented cook - me included - to prepare it right and understand the directions. As someone with a big heart for spices, I can only appreciate the diversity used for various recipes, including the less-known - and a real Kabbalistic challenge for the Askenazim - such as Baharat, Amba or Urfa Biber. I may have some observations regarding some of the recipes introduced in the book, but only if I completely take them out of the author´s identity story. Therefore, more than a general food story, Jew-ish is relevant for the generational and unique identity-in-the making Jewish story, one of the many built out of the classical framework but still relevant for its strive for identity. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

´What Would You Do If You Weren´t Afraid?´

Some book titles are strong enough for becoming a fascination for the mind. I love asking myself over and over again: ´What Would You Do If You Weren´t Afraid?´, although I conquered most of my big fears, one by one, many years ago. Still, there is fear left into my life, ungracefully brought in by the various ailments coming with age, disappearing relatives, sick children, unsafe world and hate. Feelings that the last 12 months of pandemic aggravated to all of us, no matter how fearless - as I describe myself - one can be. Thus, the need to think deeper and deeper about what really means to go beyond our limits and limitations, our mizraim. Just in due time before the holiday of freedom, Pesach.

Can a successful business woman living in London, relocated from Israel, with a big family and an impressive academic record, that was initially accepted in the Air Force Intelligence Unit for the military service be afraid? How? and especially why?

In this open memoir, Michal Oshman, currently head of TikTok Europe, the Culture, Diversity and Inclussion division is sharing her lessons learned as a Jewish woman and follower of Chasidut. Besides Chasidut, there is another Jewish author which is greatly inspiring her, one of my favorite post-WWII Jewish minds as well, Viktor Frankl. His search for meaning as the engine that keep people - literally - alive - means also a completely different approach on failure, mistakes and the overall life interaction. More than any classical therapy mindset, thinking about change and failure as a challenge helps to keep the mind fed with meaning instead of the toxic reactions of fear. 

´When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves´ said wisely Frankl and there is so much potential to completely revisit your life in just one quote. 

Born in a non-religious academic family, Oshman is navigating the terrains of fear with the orientation given by her refreshed discovery of Jewish sources: ´The Jewish ideas I was learning helped me control my thoughts and heal my life. They allowed me to move forward, towards a joyful, confident life´. Jewish practice is not for the sophisticated discussions, it is for life, and this life is our life, no matter our religion or lack thereof. As there are so many nonreligious people which keep doing loads of good deeds, while being nourished by the religious learning. Thus, the large variety of daily application of chasidut, which, as Oshman is explaining, chapter by chapter, covers personal development, company culture and diversity, as well as parenting. 

Through personal and passionate - allow your soul to burn like a flame - engagement in the moment, desire to change each and every one of us has the chance to reach his or her potential. ´You don´t have to be in full control. You only have to give space´. And how else can we achieve our potential unless we are bravely learning from our mistake, embrace them and make space for growth. (A mindset which is completely the opposite of the business and educational culture in Germany where I am living right now.) We have to allow ourselves to cross a bridge towards something not just to run through life away from something. 

I really enjoyed reading What Would You Do If You Weren´t Afraid for various reasons, the organised writing and the questions at the end of each chapter being one of them. As a reader, no matter your religion and professional level, you are invited to a journey of self-discovery and mind-investigation. You feel you matter more than a passive received of information. It is also honestly written which creates more than a bridge between the author and the readers.

For me, it was one of those books at the end of which really felt revigorated and happy to go through the reading experience. There is so much left to learn and I am grateful for being offered the chance of my life journey. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Love and Marriage in Orthodox Jewish Communities

There is a lot of negative advertising about Orthodox Jewish dating, mostly given very extreme stories based on very personal experiences. Definitely, there are things that are not good, and there is a big ongoing problem regarding the get (divorce) refusals, as well as a shidduch crisis and there are so many issues that young people from Orthodox Jewish communities should face. 

But, think about the following thing: what about putting some of those many serious issues aside - without forgetting them - while trying to learn something about this different way of dating compared to the system we are used to as free and secular persons...Orthodox dating, with maximum 5 - special cases - dates before getting engaged and then married, with no physical contact before the proper wedding and with different set of agenda and priorities is not for everyone. Still, with an open mind and especially a heart, everyone can learn something different from it.

Completely randomly today I´ve stumbled upon a 3-part documentary released three years ago, about Love and Marriage in Orthodox Jewish Communities. Looking back to all the couples experiences, with different backgrounds, but all part of the general concept of Orthodox Jewish group, I may say that there were three hours well-used. 

In full honesty, I am not into this dating any more. Not at all. I had my own portion of humiliations while dealing with shadchanim - professional matchmakers - who hurrying to make a mitzva were ready to convince me that the donkey with bald patches screaming help from the top of his lungs was a beautiful horse of the purest breed. Like one of the protagonists from the documentary, I was told more than once that maybe my standards are too high and I have too much expectations, while not being any more in my 20s, plus too educated for someone looking for a good heimishe wife. Most of the shadchanim in this movie are the really bad guys, with conversations touching upon skin color, how divorcees are ´not accepted´ or how women should compromise on so many aspects. 

But hopefully, those characters are not too often present into the story, who´s taken over by the real people looking for a match. There are very different personalities - including someone who, at the time when the documentary was made belonged to the very strict - in terms of man/women relationship - sect of Gur. They are young, or less (meaning in their late 20s), all looking to build a Jewish home. Creating a mental/intellectual connection before any physical contact occurs, looking for the common values and what connects two people in terms of future and views on things is such a beatiful bridge to be built between two people looking for more than friendship but more valuable than a random physical encounter. Why should one waste her/his time with someone you don´t see yourself with in a week, month or even a year? 

From a strict religious perspective, there are main lines one is looking for while dating, and such aspects are clarified from the very beginning: wig or head covering? working or just studying in the yeshiva or both? what customs to follow? But actually, having a small basis creates infinite possibilities for further development of the relationship. In the secular dating, will you want to go out with someone walking in flip-flops? Someone who drives a car or goes to work on a bike? Serious dating is about making choices and respecting one´s values, while allowing the relationship to develop slowly and testing it when necessary. It is so hard nowadays to find someone sharing the same - human - values with, but taking your time and keeping up with your set of values, daring to ask questions and to say ´no´ when one feels is no future for the heart - although the mind seems to enjoy its wanderings - is such a journey worth taking it. It is that ´click´ or ´chemistry´ that is needed for setting up the premises for a couple, and the further work to make things work, based on respect, common interests and honesty.

Finding the right one for religious people involves praying for a sign or asking for the advice of a rabbi and hoping that he or she is really the one that Gd supposely assigned long before birth. But except some people that for so many reasons are much better alone - as they cannot poison other people with their insecurities and inner dishonesty - we are not all of us looking for signs that by staying with someone we made the right decision? 

After watching this movie I´ve finally realized that although my dating itinerary was not the happiest one, and had to deal with a lot of human failures along the way, looking for values, taking my time and trying a connection of hearts before anything else helped me tremendously to come closer to that special person I was waiting for my whole life. And this is more than enough. 

My Story of An American Pickle

 

Drown for 100 years in a barrel of pickles, Hershel Greenbaum is back to life in a Brooklyn and Williambsburg of hipsters. Among them, Ben, his gran-grand nephew, who is trying unsuccessfully to launch an app for ethnically conscious consumers. Welcome to the world of An American Pickle!

The story in itself has a plot and it resonates probably with many non-religious American Jews. Ben is the ancestor of Jews (religious) who had left their Cossack-threatened communities looking for a better future in the ´goldene medina´ (which was the USA at the time). As Ben, played by Seth Rogen, who also plays Hershel, there are many American Jews who made their Bar Mitzva, know they are Jewish but couldn´t care about it and this is also a choice. The net that connects can be, and often is, wider than the minyan of the synagogue. It can be a cemetery plot, or a pickle. 

The film has a lot of action, hilarious encounters and really really will make you laugh - even if you are not Jewish. But the thing - my thing, actually - is that by the fact of being made by people with probably a very limited - if any - Jewish knowledge, it gets it wrong at least in one respect. 

Hershel, which used to be a religious Jews - at least it is dressed as one, although his daily practice is just supposed and this for those who are expecting him to do so, is coming back to life after 100 years but his behavior is completely ´normal´. He doesn´t care about kosher, not praying, not donning tefillin. He is doing his pickle thing brilliantly, even starts a Twitter-storm with some inappropriate religious comments about another religion. but his character is mostly empty. Ben, on the other side, it looks more ´natural´ and genuine because, it seems reflects the lifestyle of the film producers. 

I will not call An American Pickle a bad or mediocre movie, is just slightly prankish by its inability to create representations of characters as they are, especially based on their historical authenticity. On the other side, the pickle story is really funny and entertaining, beyond the hipster-take. As for the rest of it, I am not impressed at all, but I am happy I´ve finally watched it as it explains how different the identity of Jews living in America can be. 

 

The Last Book of Adana Moreau: some thoughts

Every single month, I am reading an impressive amount of books and novels with a Jewish topic, young or mature authors, men and female, modern or classical stories, for children, young adults, middle grade or a wider audience. Some are published in English, but also in German, French, Hebrew or Italian. Many relate on topics pertaining to Jewish life, the rift between religious and secular Jews, finding love out of the tribe, longing about a lost home country that will never feel as home, making - or refusing to make - aliyah. There is a comperehensive list of topics that repeat themselves over and over again. Therefore, is there any chance to change and challenge the ways in which Jewish novels are written?

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata, that I have access to in audio format narrated by Coral Pena, seems to be an inspiring place to start a discussion about the future of Jewish-themed novels. I haven´t been surprised at such a great extent by a book since discovering Jorge L. Borges, many many springs away. 

The book is mindblowing by its complexity of the story and its references: both historical - Jewish and universal - as well as pertaining to the world. And it´s populated by an enormous amount of characters as well, that the author is playing skillfully as a puppeteer with his feet steady in the middle of the world. Among them, a one-arm businessman from Columbia, a (Jewish) pirate, Sicilian soldiers, a physician interested in parallel universes, Adana Moreau who wrote and published a SF book that got lost in New Orleans after her premature death in 1929 and recovered during our common era through an accident of sorts.

The search for Adana´s son turns into a quixotic journey, which connects, as patches of colourful but diverse pieces of fabric, Jewish stories from all over the world, flowing seamlessy through centuries. The paradigm of the parallel universes resonates with the complexity itself of the Jewish lives, caught between present and the heavy - unbearable sometimes - past. Jumping from a parallel quanta to another, the story within the stories can be read as the the paradigm of Jewish narrative as well. Too diverse to be said into one story, very much connected with disparate geographical references from all over the world, never complete without the (un)safe details of the wider social spectrum. It sounds as a post-modern chaos and listening to the story I had to stop and listen again a fragment or another, but all comes together as a story. 

The Last Book of Adana Moreau is bold in its embrace of diversity of all kinds, but it also creates a happy literary precedent where creativity is highly at work and there are no limits for its courage to say all and everything.

Creating Fake Targets

Playing with the fire of racism and creating inappropriate fears against a different category of population never did good, especially to a democracy. Elections in time of health, economic and social debacle prove to be an unusual ground for outburst of absurd yet well targeted declarations.

The latest in the row of the neverending electoral cycle in Israel is the assumption the prime-minister in office Benjamin Netanyahu made this week - calling himself several times ´the pilot´, the one and only qualified to fly the plane that is Israel -, in an interview for the English-speaking voters in Israel - Anglos - with senior editor of Jerusalem Post, Lahav Harkov: the latest decision of the Supreme Court requiring to recognize Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel will encourage ´fake converts´ among the asylum seekers/refugees currently in a limbo in the country. As simple as that...

A couple of elections ago, the same ´pilot´ was warning that Arabs are coming ´in droves´ to vote on behalf of other candidates, and many many years ago, he was very vocal against the late Yitzhak Rabin, participating at very violent gatherings that were stirring the boiling environment that finally leaded to the assasination of the prime minister. The same ´King Bibi´, with his diplomatic experience, spindoctoring in a fine English, who is shaking hands with a Kahanist like Itamar Ben Gvir and the delirious Betzalel Smotrich. Nothing new under the sun, as already expressed in a very good book I´ve reviewed on the blog about the ´turbulent life and times of Benjamin Netanyahu´.

The story with the ´fake converts´ is not new and was also shared by Shas, the party who promises to represent the interest of Jews from the Middle East, leaded by the former convinct for embezzlement ladies and gentlement, the Minister of Interior, Arye Deri. Deri who theoretically should consider the applications for asylum on behalf of the refugees that entered Israel illegally. 

Currently, there are around 30,000 asylum seekers in Israel, mostly coming from Sudan and Eritrea and claiming they in life-threatening situations, the majority having been entering the country via Egypt. The Shas Facebook post said that following the decision of the Supreme Court ´thousands of infiltrators and foreign workers will become Jewish as Reform converts´. There are no evidences suggesting that there is any interest on behalf of people belonging to this category for converting to Judaism. Not few of them are just in a limbo, with no place to go and finding themselves in an incertain risky situation. 

Gilad Kariv, reform rabbi and activist on behalf of the Reform Movement in Israel, and Labor candidate, explained in a Facebook post: ´The Conservative and the Reform movements in Israel convert only those who have residency status. No labor migrants. Not asylum seekers. Not tourists´. A basic information that Arye Deri would have known already in his long assignment as Ministry of Interior. 

But obviously, no one is naive enough to expect any logical thinking in this case. King Bibi, ´the pilot´, is playing his manipulative card, again. Together with the Kahanists and Shas and the Haredi parties and who knows who else, he just doesn´t want to give up. The other news is that, again, his opposition is as weak as the argument of the conversions...Which means there will be another - and another - election soon?

´Before the Revolution´

 The day when the Shah was gone, the head of the Mossad mission in Tehran got a headache...

During the mid-1970s, thousand of Israelis were working in Iran, alongside with Americans and Europeans. From kibbutzniks that suddenly had a maid to arm dealers and people that trained - and even created, some say - the terrible secret service of SAVAK, they were happy to work for better salaries and enjoy a life a luxury. They were so deep into the bubble that most of them were almost completely disconected from the reality and it was very hard to convince to leave Iran, even after Khomeini returned in glory and the Shah´s portraits were set to fire. 

Iran needed Israel for its military knowledge and knowledge in the field of agriculture, among others. Israelis were happy to enjoy the lavish lifestyle at a time when Israel was coping with economic hardships, while being handsomely paid. The Israeli embassy in Tehran, lead by an ambassador, was a well known secret. Iran needed Israel against the Arab countries. Israel needed a friend in the Middle East. Deal.

The parents of the film director of Before the Revolution, Dan Shadur, were among the people that enjoyed the life in Tehran while working hard. His father was building the military basis used by SAVAK. Through personal, intimate films and interviews with some of those who were part of the bubble at the time, Shadur recreated a historical episode of a historical relationship. I´ve particularly appreciated the multitude of points of view and the different evaluations and approaches of the situation. Most though completely misread the situation and the people, although they noticed the big gap between the North - rich - and the South - very poor - of Tehran, as well as the increasing insatisfaction of the local population under the Shah´s dictatorship. Iranians wanted ´to have their bread and breathe´ outlines one of persons interviewed. US, France and Germany didn´t want to stop Khomeini because according to the very easy Cold War logic, he was not a communist. He was just religious. 

Israelis left and developped other lucrative relationships with countries from Africa, South or Central America. Not few of them were dictatorships. From the balcony of the building that once hosted the Israeli diplomatic mission, Yasser Arafat was greeting the masses. There is always a ´before´ and an ´after´, no matter what. History has a long take and it´s made of many episodes. Some of them so surprising that not even the most intelligent spies in the world can accurately predict.

Rating: 5 stars