The Last of the Jews: a liberating film (review)
With his first feature, the author of the Parliament series creates an intelligent comedy around a modern anti-hero confronted with his cultural identity.
Bellisha is 27 years old and leads the life of a small retiree, he goes to the café, goes to the market, strolls around the city… He lives with his mother Giselle, who goes out very little and whom he makes believe that he is solidly integrated into working life. The tide turns when Giselle realizes that they are the last Jews in their city. She convinces herself that they must leave too. Bellisha doesn’t really want it but to reassure his mother, he makes her believe that he is preparing for their departure.
In his first feature, Noé Debré tackles the issue of anti-Semitism in the form of a comedy. The story of Bellisha (the revelation Michael Zindel), relaxed and lunar hero, tragic and lucid, dreamer and charmer. This soon-to-be thirty-year-old cohabits with Giselle, his atrabilary mother (Agnès Jaoui), worried about seeing the Jewish community of Sarcelles reduced to nothing.
Bellisha plays down what can be, deceives maternal anxiety like so many holes to be filled. Through the journey of this anti-hero, Noé Debré tackles the social and cultural violence that plagues our societies. And to the usual closed circuit, the filmmaker responds with an open-mindedness of real intelligence.
Here is the trailer for Last of the Jewsat the cinema on January 24:
