Viehjud Levi (Jew Boy Levi)

Currently films about Jews and cultural items about Jews are very popular in Germany. Whether this is due to guilt, a nostalgic longing for the "old days" before WWII, or due to the modern generation being able to look dispassionately at the period of history that their grandparents lived through is a matter for speculation. But you will find that most German made films about the Holocaust tend to treat it as an aberration from the behavior of the majority of normal "good" Germans, like the Nazis were a few bad apples that spoiled the bunch.

German writer-director Didi Danquart's first feature film, Viehjud Levi (Jew Boy Levi), takes a slightly different track, but retains a similar denial when you examine the characters symbolically. The 1935 Black Forest setting is beautiful, and the small village is very picturesque. Nazism has not infected this part of Germany yet. Life seems normal.

Jewish cattle dealer Benjamin Levi (Bruno Cathomas) goes about his business on a motorbike and with a rustic trailer, and is well liked in the town. He barters fairly, has a sense of humor, and joins the villagers in the town beer hall to socialize. Yet Levi is the only Jew in the village and is lonely, often talking to his prized pet rabbit and singing Yiddish songs to him. He longs for the farmer's daughter, Lisbeth (Caroline Ebner).

Lisbeth seems torn between the responsible Levi and the out of work Paul (Bernd Michael Lade), though in Depression riddled Germany this was common. Libeth's parents are not pleased at the thought of her hooking up with the lazy Paul, yet they aren't thrilled that their Catholic raised daughter likes Levi either but are less vocal in the beginning.

Things change radically when a Nazi engineer (Ulrich Noethen) arrives in the village with his secretary/girlfriend (Martina Gedicki), and suddenly latent anti-Semitic attitudes explode, cutting Levi off from his once friendly neighbors and exposing him to ruthless vandalism and bodily danger. His fate is left ambiguous, but the direction is clear and the full fury of the Holocaust is just a few years away.

Based on a play by Thomas Strittmater, Director Didi Danquart creates an idyllic period piece with gathering clouds in this 1999 film. Character development takes a back seat to archetype and allegory. It's up to the audience to interpret the symbolic characters. The most obvious symbol is the Nazi engineer, who doubles as a magician, staging a show in the Black Forest complete with Nazi flags that is designed to win over the village. Many Germans from those dark days relate how they didn't realize what was happening, and weren't in control - just as a magician can play his illusions in plain view.

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