The Illegals
USA 1948, NEU RESTAURIERTE FASSUNG, 77 min, Engl. Original Version
EUROPEAN JEWISH FILM CENTER in cooperation with The Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque:
International Holocaust Remembrance Day – 27th January 2021 at 19:00
Online Screening of the newly restored version of The Illegals (Dir. Meyer Levin, 1948) followed by a Q&A with Film historian Prof. Frank Stern and with the director´s son, poet and translator, Gabriel Levin.
Anlässlich des Internationalen Tags des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Holocaust (International Holocaust Remembrance Day) am 27. Januar 2021 kooperiert die Cinemathek Jerusalem mit diversen Festivals und Filminitiativen und stellt die restaurierte Fassung von Meyer Levins THE ILLEGALS für ein gemeinsames Online Screening zur Verfügung.
Der Film über die Bricha/Flucht jüdischer Überlebender nach 1945 aus Polen und anderen Ländern über die CSSR und vor allem Österreich ist live gefilmt worden. Viele Szenen spielen in Wien und in den schneebedeckten Alpen und zeigen die mühseligen Fussmärsche. Es ist ein Dok-Film mit Spielfilmhandlung.
Nach dem Screening stehen Frank Stern und der Sohn des Regisseurs Gabriel Levin für Q&A zur Verfügung.
Diese Online Vorführung ist der Beginn einer Initiative für ein EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH FILM.
“The Age of Holocaust Survivors is drawing to a close. Before long no one will be left to say, „I was there, I saw, I remember what happened.“ All that will be left will be books of literature and research, pictures and films, and multitudinous testimony. This will be a new era. The dark inheritance of the Shoah that was so indelibly stamped on the survivors‘ souls and hearts will become a sacred mission imposed upon humanity.” (From The Survivor´s Declaration)
On The International Holocaust Remembrance Day – 27th January 2021, we will honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of the Nazi regime.
This year, facing the challenges of the social distance imposed on us, we as executive directors, curators and academics in the field of Jewish Film, collaborate in creating an online commemoration event, a cornerstone for the establishment of a EUROPEAN JEWISH FILM CENTER, which will provide a face to face, and an online forum for Jewish Film events in Europe.
In cooperation with The Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, we will screen the newly restored version of the film: The Illegals. After the screening, Film historian Prof. Frank Stern and the director´s son, poet and translator, Gabriel Levin, will join us for a Q&A session.
The Illegals is an extraordinary historical document that combines fiction and documentary. The director depicts the surviving Jewish remnant in their odyssey through many European countries and accompanies 853 Jewish refugees, including 150 children on a small wooden freighter on its way to Eretz Israel. Director Meyer Levin, took part in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps as an American journalist and decided to tell in the The Illegals the story of the survivors’ destinies after the war.
An initiative of the EUROPEAN JEWISH FILM CENTER in cooperation with The Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque:
Barcelona Jewish Film Festival – www.fcjbarcelona.org
Copenhagen Jewish Film Festival – www.cjff.dk
Jewish Moving Pictures Organisation (Germany) – jewishmovingpictures@gmail.com
Vienna Jewish Film Club – www.juedischer-filmclub.at
Warsaw Jewish Film Festival – www.wjff.pl
The Illegals
Regie: Meyer Levin