AJFF: Holocaust Echoes Shatter Family Harmony

By Jacqueline Morris

“Past Life” interweaves the story of an Israeli family with two successful daughters and the former life of their father, a prominent Israeli physician, as he was escaping the Holocaust in Poland.

The younger daughter, Sephi, is a musical protégée, and through her international touring she discovers there is more to her father’s past than she and her sister have been told.

The shadow of doubt and guilt looms across this entire movie. It keeps changing and making you wonder: How can everyone throughout the movie have a different view of the same action?

The film shows the natural human tendency to deflect guilt, even to someone with whom you have integrated so much of your life. The movie keeps you on your toes, continually changing what you think you know.

As the plot unfolds and sisters Sephi and Nana unravel more of their father’s history, the family becomes more and more divided.

Will the emotions the sisters confront hurt and hinder them, or could they help in some way create understanding in their own lives? Can their relationship with their father be fixed, or is the looming distrust going to consume each of their lives?

Can the young solve the issues and the mysteries of the older generation? Is the older generation, which experienced the horrors of the Holocaust and its aftermath, willing to reconcile with one another?

Can a new friendship salvage a relationship from the past or help to heal the wounds?

If you like suspense, coincidences, family drama and music, this movie is great and worth the time.