The awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch — Film Review
I am an Indian — the Indian one. My mother tongue is Hindi. The movie being reviewed is filmed in Yiddish and German — I can’t tell the difference though. I understood the movie through continuous flow of English subtitles. What incredible times!
We see a boy who realizes and doesn’t want his life to be another culturally imposed cliche: reaching a certain age, getting married, having kids, delivering on duties, and dying of old age. So that scares the whack out of Motti Wolkenbruch, and he decides to make his own fate.
Any delectable dish such as a farmhouse pizza, hamburger, or a butter chicken is nothing but at most two raw materials made exotic by careful use of masalas. It is simply delicious! And, the same is true for this film. The story uses a boy, educated, financially stable, not physically deformed, good looking — basically a normal everyday human being, blends him with a spark of rebel against his own religious practice of not marrying a Shiksa or Shikseh, a non-Jew woman, throws in really interesting characters, not-too-spicy dialogues, colorful locations, and very basic Jewish daily references(shidduchs, toches, titchtich etc.); And we have a fresh film to start a day with or end with — totally depends on your schedule.
This film shows our hero tiny-fighting his own mother, who can have her own running series like Southpark, a pillar of the Jewish culture in the family. She is a proud Jewish to start with, and then she is a proud Jewish mother, a deadly combination of patriotism, melodrama and hysteric. Every time Inge Maux is on the screen portraying Mame Wolkenbruch, my speakers are fried with the cries of Mottii!! If not for anything else, this film is a must watch for Mame.
The film was an interesting watch for me because I come from a background which is infiltrated with casteism and jingoism, where marriage outside of caste is a shame and considered a sin — for extreme form search Love Jihad, where cows are considered sacred and consuming beef can definitely show you the doors of hell by the grim reapers slash self-proclaimed religious protectors, where a ban on the release of a film becomes a national issue, and talks on topics such as sex can get you wide eyes. Then to watch a film which shows that there is a culture where the only thing that is considered intolerant is to marry a Shiksa, but it is healthy to talk about lust and indulge in gluttony in front of your folks, it was relieving in many ways(Motti!! why do you cry); However, I should be radical enough to believe that I could find ways in Jewish culture which conflict with my own beliefs.
My verdict: The movie is very well-paced, timed at one and a half hours, brilliantly acted in by the cast, well edited, and colorful. You’ll definitely be walking out of “Netflix” with a smile on your face — time and money well spent.
Lechaim!!
And, I am delighted to discover a middle-eastern alcoholic drink Arak. Sounds sour and exciting!!
Also, this song from the film
