Misha and the Wolves (2021)
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 90 minuten
Country:
Belgium / United Kingdom
Directed by: Sam Hobkinson
Stars: Misha Defonseca
IMDb score:
6,6 (3.689)
Releasedate: 3 September 2021
Misha and the Wolves plot
In the early 1990s, Misha Defonseca, a Belgian immigrant, told an incredible story about the Holocaust. Divorced from her parents, Misha traveled on foot through the chilly European wilderness as a little girl, having heard that her parents were in Germany. She walked hundreds, maybe thousands of miles, eventually hiding from the Nazis with a pack of wild wolves, who treated her as one of their own. Misha's memoirs became an international bestseller and even led to film adaptations. However, after an argument with her publisher, Misha's story began to fall apart. Has everything been lied together? Filmmaker Sam Hobkinson set out to investigate.
Reviews & comments
mrklm
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- 12860 messages
- 10708 votes
Decades after the Holocaust, Misha Defonseca, now living in Ohio, recounted her wartime experiences at a synagogue gathering. As a child, she supposedly journeyed on foot from Brussels to Germany to search for her deported parents, befriending and embracing a pack of wolves. The inexperienced publisher Jane Daniel agreed to publish this story in book form, and soon Disney signed up for the film rights, earning Misha an invitation to Oprah's Book Club—an invitation (literally) worth its weight in gold for any self-respecting author. When Misha, with a lame excuse, backs out of an interview with Oprah at the last minute, it raises doubts about the story's authenticity. This documentary features reconstructions of scenes from the book in question, giving ample opportunity for all involved parties to speak, even though Defonseca appears only in pre-recorded interviews because she declined to participate in the film. It raises interesting questions with intriguing answers, but also leaves a few important ones unanswered.
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Vikanohara
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- 1026 messages
- 1410 votes
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life: “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “If you feed them right, they both win. You see, if I only choose to feed the white wolf, the black one will be hiding around every corner waiting for me to become distracted or weak and jump to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and always fighting the white wolf. But if I acknowledge him, he is happy and the white wolf is happy and we all win. For the black wolf has many qualities – tenacity, courage, fearlessness, strong-willed and great strategic thinking – that I have need of at times and that the white wolf lacks. But the white wolf has compassion, caring, strength and the ability to recognize what is in the best interest of all.
(extract from the well-known Cherokee parable, although it is often wrongly shortened)
So applicable in this story too: She's both a victim and a villain.
This is a really fascinating documentary.
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Donkerwoud
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- 8926 messages
- 4075 votes
Like a wolf with the truth
It is a refreshing change from true crime stories about serial killers, family murders, and smooth con artists. 'Misha and the Wolves' (2021) delves deeper into the issue surrounding bestselling author Misha Defonseca and her completely fabricated Holocaust story. Almost a Disney-esque tale featuring a grueling journey through the wilderness with wolf friends. With hindsight, it is somewhat surprising that people were so eager to believe in this fairy tale. Yet, the documentary argues that more reality has crept into Defonseca's fantasy if one does not take the events literally. What if the symbolism unconsciously refers to her guilt over her father's questionable role in the war? 'Misha and the Wolves' (2021) is beautifully shot and cinematically structured, but in doing so, it remains superficial. Thus, the psychological motives once again yield a compelling story, yet somehow I get the feeling that it overlooks more banal motives: after all, her lie brought the fabricator money and attention. We so desperately want to see something great in the painful past.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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