Left Luggage

Starring:Krijn ter Braak, David Bradley (IV), Benjamin Broekaert, Lana Broekaert, Koen De Bouw, Laura Fraser (II), Ben Glanz, Lex Goudsmit, Miriam Margolyes, Adam Monty (II), Isabella Rossellini, Maximilian Schell, Marianne SÃ¤gebrecht, Topol, Noura Van der Berg, Mieke Verheyden, Bart de Vries, Edwin de Vries, Heather Weeks
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Description

Set in Belgium in the early 70's, Left Luggage is the touching and emotional story of Chaja, a rebellious philosophy student stuggling to come of age. Her relationship with her parents, both concentration camp survivors, is strained and she finds herself unable to accept her Jewish identity. A family friend finds her a job as a nanny for a Hassidic family with 5 children. Joining forces with Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini) and through her love for the youngest child who doesn't speak, Chaja learns to accept and respect a culture steeped in traditions, and finds the true value of life.

Average customer rating:

Great Movie!
Wonderful movie
Moving
Wonderful film, but wish it had been longer
A beautiful and uplifting film

Left Luggage
Starring: Krijn ter Braak , David Bradley (IV) , Benjamin Broekaert , Lana Broekaert , and Koen De Bouw
Director: Jeroen Krabbé
ProductGroup: Theatrical Release
Binding: Theatrical Release

The Chosen
A Life Apart - Hasidism in America
Ushpizin
Time of Favor
A Price Above Rubies

ASIN: B00005JJY3

Customer Reviews:

Great Movie!.......2007-04-19

This is a powerful movie. However, I recommend you keep the kids away. It some mature matter that may not be appropriate for the little ones.

Wonderful movie.......2007-04-01

I can't say too much about this movie.
Every time I watch it I love it more.

Moving.......2007-01-14

First of all this movie does have nudity in it. I found that out the hard way - long story. No sex scenes but more of a European approach to showing the human body. But, it is a well done and moving movie that I reccomend. More than one thing is going on at a time in this movie so you have to pay attention because there are several key themes and plots. Was well worth the money. Not an action flick, but a story well told.

A detail not mentioned elsewhere, I think, is that the young woman ends up working for a Satmar family (a Hasidic group). Good for discussion on Jewish identity. The theme of antisemitism and the Shoah are somewhat secondary to the story although they do help set it up and provide background.

Wonderful film, but wish it had been longer.......2006-11-02

This film brings up a number of important issues, issues that one doesn't see often in more mainstream big-budget films. It's set in Belgium in the early Seventies, and Chaja, the main character, is caught up in the student movements and youth politics of the day. She's quite detached from the Jewish identity of her parents, who are Shoah survivors, and their friends. Due to the era in which this film takes place, most of the survivors are only middle-aged, still relatively young, instead of the aging people we picture them as today. However, after quitting her restaurant job in disgust at the beginning of the film, she, through her family friend Mr. Apfelschnitt, finds employment as a nanny for a Hassidic family, the Kalmans. It is through this job, which she initially also felt like walking away from, that she develops a reconnection to her faith and to her heritage. She is also persuaded to keep the job because of one of the Kalmans' children, four year old Simcha, who is autistic and very attached to her. Both because of her growing affection for the Kalmans and her reconnection to her roots, she is forced to re-examine a number of things in her life, such as the latent anti-Semitism of her roommate and supposed best friend Sofie and the openly anti-Semitic and even downright cruel and abusive landlord and elevator-operator in the Kalmans' apartment. One wishes that there were more films of this nature being made about the Hassidic community, giving an accurate and fair and balanced portrayal, instead of offensive and untruthful garbage like 'Kadosh' and 'A Price Above Rubies.' There's also the subplot of Chaja's father's obsessive decades-long search to find the luggage he buried the night before he had to leave his family behind and go into hiding from the Nazis; hence the film's title. A third, more minor, subplot concerns their neighbors the Goldmans; Mr. Goldman is a prolific philatelist, which really angers and frustrates his wife, who feels that he cares more about his stamps and pays more attention to them than to her and their marriage. I was also excited to learn that it was based on a novel, which I hope to find a copy of eventually.

However, as wonderful and touching as this film is, I just wish it had been somewhat longer. I felt it ended just when things were really getting involving and full of tension, everything really coming to a head. There could have easily been another 30 minutes or so of working out the events that were transpiring instead of more or less ending without a great deal of resolution to all of these great subplots that had so much more dramatic potential. The ending seems more depressing and unresolved than anything else, even though of course not all films are meant to have happy sunshiny endings or to make the viewer feel good. And I know that Chaja's character is meant to be a thoroughly modern woman of the Seventies, and someone who has no real love for or interest in her religion, but I thought it was a bit unrealistic how at first she was going over to the Kalmans' and taking their kids out to the park dressed in miniskirts and jeans. Surely Mr. Apfelschnitt (who is religious) would have told her that those just aren't acceptable outfits when in the company of Hassidic people; whether or not one dresses like that in one's own world shouldn't preclude having respect for the conventions of modesty of one's hosts. She was a guest in their house, and a guest on shaky ground at best at first, not the other way around! It also seems a bit unrealistic how Sofie has no idea, until Chaja informs her of this fact during the skinny-dipping scene pretty far into the film, that her best friend is Jewish. How many Belgian women their age would have had such an overtly Hebrew name like that in the Seventies, or even in any era, unless they were Jewish? And wouldn't she have known from Chaja telling her about her family life anyway? (As for the skinny-dipping scene itself, yes we see full frontal nudity in both women, but it only lasts for a second or so, and besides, there's absolutely nothing sexual or pornographic about it. Not all nudity is automatically adult in context or inappropriate for children, unless one is teaching children that all nudity is inherently shameful and dirty, and only exists in a sexual context, which I would consider far more inappropriate than a very brief and innocent scene of full frontal nudity.)

Overall, this is a very thought-provoking film, one that doesn't offer any easy answers about complex issues, but rather leaves it up to the different characters to work out their own answers and ideas. All of these characters have their own "left luggage," and all come to different conclusions as to how to resolve it. Though it does have obviously strong Jewish content, and therefore some references or terms which might not be fully understood by outsiders to the faith, it's also a film that's easily-accessible to people of all religions.

A beautiful and uplifting film.......2005-06-01

I am still crying from having just watched this. If you are moved by examples of people being kind and noble despite their own pain and loss, then I can't recommend this little gem highly enough.

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