Everything Is Illuminated

Jonathan is a collector. A solemn idiosyncratic young man whose greatest preoccupation is the collating of objects from his family members in small Ziploc bags. His obsession with the past is almost nihilistic in its disregard for the present – when the only non-vegetarian meal he can find is a boiled potato, rather than eat what little he has, he whips out a Ziploc bag and pockets the morsel so as not to forget the moment.

The grandchild of Jewish immigrants who fled Eastern Europe during the war, he clings desperately to the relics of his heritage, stitching together fragments of a broken family tree. So when upon the death of his grandmother (his last tie to Europe) he discovers a link in the chain he did not know about, he embarks on a journey to Ukraine to unearth the mysteries of his family’s past. But the more that you know, the more you know that you don’t know – Jonathan tumbles down a rabbit hole deeper than he could have imagined.

The film is narrated by Jonathan’s translator Alexander Perchov, who is about as different to Jonathan as is conceivably possible. Alexander is a king of Ukrainian counter-culture who has charmingly (and rather dismally) appropriated mismatched fads of American pop culture, and speaks English as if he learned to use only the dodgy final entries of each word in a thesaurus:

“Most of all, I am beloved of Amyerican movies, mooscular cars, and hyipop music.”

Alexander is acted by Eugene Hütz, most famous as the frontman for eccentric gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Several Gogol Bordello songs feature in the soundtrack of the film, which is diverse, playful and frankly fantastic. The film came out in 2005 as Balkan music was experiencing a wave of popularity globally. A few years later that wave hit South African nightlife, spawning new world music festivals and those famous Balkanology parties.

Jonathan is played by the understated Elijah Wood, who had reached the pinnacle of his career just a few years earlier in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, and was still recognized around the world as Frodo Baggins but his role as Jonathan could not have been cast better.

Alexander’s grumpy anti-Semitic senile grandfather runs a business driving Jews to the sites of their family history. Despite being the driver, he claims to be blind and is never too far from his “seeing eye bitch”, a deranged dog named Sammy Davis Junior Junior.

The collision of these polar opposite personalities: Alexander, his grandfather, Sammy Davis Junior Junior and Jonathan, yields candid culture shock comedy which teeters beguilingly on the edge of lunacy.

There is a well-measured oscillation between hilarity and sorrowful contemplation, so that you can appreciate the profundity of their journey and character development without being crushed under the weight of the Holocaust.

World War II left behind many traumas. For many survivors, the horrors were too horrific to talk about, so they simply didn’t, resulting in so many families with elders tortured by painful memories and children ignorant or disconnected from their heritage.

Each character on the journey undergoes immense change. Jonathan learns how to remember the past without stopping himself from moving forward, Alexander discovers a murky history entombed beneath his modern Ukrainian culture, and Alexander’s grandfather confronts his attitude towards Jews and his own past. As well as whatever else, their journey is about coming to terms with one’s own place in history.

The film is based on a book which itself is a combination of two autobiographical stories of the author’s search for his heritage. It may not be possible to fully grasp the significance of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but films like this one give us a small window into the experiences of those who were left behind. When Jonathan finally reaches the end of his quest, it is not merely pain and ashes that he finds; there is also beauty and meaning and catharsis. Everything is illuminated in the light of the past. DM/ ML

Everything Is Illuminated is available for rent or purchase in South Africa on Google Play and Apple TV.