To Life (2014)
(À La Vie, Jean-Jacques Zilbermann, France 2014, 107 min., French w/subtitles)
Rochester International Jewish Film Festival. The Yiddish songs the women sang in secret in Auschwitz serve as a backdrop for this moving story about the regenerative power of friendship. In Paris, Hélène is searching for her closest friends from the camps. Fifteen years after the war, she finally finds Lili, a young Dutch woman, and Rose, who was thought to have died in Auschwitz, but is living with her husband and children in Montreal. They meet for a holiday at a seaside resort in northern France. While savoring ice cream cones, trying on bikinis and swimming in the sea, the women resume their friendship with occasional disagreements about what they remember. Despite high spirits and their insistence that they not talk about the camps, remnants of the war seep into everyday life, whether through Lili’s cutting remarks or Rose’s habit of squeezing a teabag for all it’s worth.
underwritten by
Susan and Saul Marsh
For more information on the festival, film trailer, and tickets, visit rjff.org.