The Last Scene
Our memories play tricks on us - sometimes with misty images and sometimes with clear and sharp pictures. Millions and even billions of moments in our past have collected in our human camera. Some are vague while others continually affect us, mold our personalities and even determine the direction of our lives.
The Holocuast movie, The Last Scene, tells the story of Menucha, For seventy years, Menucha has remained silent. The image of parting at the train station in Warsaw in the Spring of 1935 remains engraved in her memory. The face of five year old Menucha is pressed against the window of the train, her eyes, wide with horror, stare at the scene on the platform. Her sister Mindel, 11 years old, is clinging desperately to their mother's dress. The piercing whistle of the train fills the air. The mother, in a single movement, tears away from the grasp of her daughter and rushes to board the train. The clatter of the wheels erases the image of the child vainly chasing the vanishing train.
Menucha is firm in her desire to direct the scene that is engraved in her mind and to perpetuate on celluloid that scrap of memory so that it will serve as a monument and witness to the existence of her sister Mindel.
In the process of making her film and in the dialogues that develop between her and the actors who play her mother, sister and herself (Dahlia Shimiko as the mother, and Esther Pai as Mindel), Menucha is forced, for the first time, to struggle with questions that troubled her throughout the years. The ultimate dramatic scene, filmed at the railroad station, is constructed like a jigsaw puzzle, step by step, from scraps of her memory and details that accrued to her imagination over the years.
In the course of this documentary, which attempts to shed light on the significance of memory and its implications, details of Menuchas life are revealed, her obsession with commemoration, the unanswered questions that she has about her parents, and the difficulties and doubts that she feels. The tragic fate of her sister Mindel is revealed in the process of searching for filming locations, auditioning the actors, and coaching them in their roles.
Menuchas research and the unsolved questions that accompany her progress in making her film are recorded by the documentary camera. Will Menucha make a final accounting with her parents? How does a mother choose between children in a life and death situation? Is this simply a personal story or a reflection of the much wider phenomenon of families who left loved ones behind
The Holocuast movie, The Last Scene, tells the story of Menucha, For seventy years, Menucha has remained silent. The image of parting at the train station in Warsaw in the Spring of 1935 remains engraved in her memory. The face of five year old Menucha is pressed against the window of the train, her eyes, wide with horror, stare at the scene on the platform. Her sister Mindel, 11 years old, is clinging desperately to their mother's dress. The piercing whistle of the train fills the air. The mother, in a single movement, tears away from the grasp of her daughter and rushes to board the train. The clatter of the wheels erases the image of the child vainly chasing the vanishing train.
Menucha is firm in her desire to direct the scene that is engraved in her mind and to perpetuate on celluloid that scrap of memory so that it will serve as a monument and witness to the existence of her sister Mindel.
In the process of making her film and in the dialogues that develop between her and the actors who play her mother, sister and herself (Dahlia Shimiko as the mother, and Esther Pai as Mindel), Menucha is forced, for the first time, to struggle with questions that troubled her throughout the years. The ultimate dramatic scene, filmed at the railroad station, is constructed like a jigsaw puzzle, step by step, from scraps of her memory and details that accrued to her imagination over the years.
In the course of this documentary, which attempts to shed light on the significance of memory and its implications, details of Menuchas life are revealed, her obsession with commemoration, the unanswered questions that she has about her parents, and the difficulties and doubts that she feels. The tragic fate of her sister Mindel is revealed in the process of searching for filming locations, auditioning the actors, and coaching them in their roles.
Menuchas research and the unsolved questions that accompany her progress in making her film are recorded by the documentary camera. Will Menucha make a final accounting with her parents? How does a mother choose between children in a life and death situation? Is this simply a personal story or a reflection of the much wider phenomenon of families who left loved ones behind
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