Last Picture Show in Bucharest

Synopsis

This saga unfolds at the 1955 Court Martial in which an Israeli soldier stands accused of desertion, during which he made his way via Europe to the swamps of Vietnam, in search of justice – and revenge.

About the Director

Ludi Boeken was born in Amsterdam, and started out as a war correspondent for BBC and Dutch TV in the Middle East and covered South and Central America and Africa. He subsequently directed over 25 investigative documentaries (including the Emmy Award winning “Who Killed Georgi Markov“[BBC Panorama], the prize-winning The Other Face of Terror[Channel Four] and Gypsyland [Channel Four]), covering Human Rights subjects as well as terrorism, arms trade, torture, etc. From 1985 he produced many feature films such as “Vincent and Theo” by Robert Altman (starring Tim Roth), “Silent Tongue” by Sam Shepard (starring Richard Harris, Alan Bates and River Phoenix), “La Fracture du Myocarde” (“Cross My Heart”) by Jacques Fansten, and “Train of Life” by Radu Milhaelianu, before directing his first feature film, “Britney Baby One More Time” (Sundance 2002). His second feature film was “Deadlines”, co-directed with Michael A. Lerner, starring Anne Parillaud and Stephen Moyer (“Best Feature Film” at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2005, “Best European Film” award at the Avignon Film Festival 2004, “Best British Feature Film” at the Cherbourg Film Festival 2005, “Best Actress” award for Anne Parillaud at the Paris International Film Festival 2004). His third feature film as director was “Saviors In The Night”(Unter Bauern), the award-winning tale of a group of German farmers who, throughout the Nazi period, save a Jewish family on their farm. The film stars Veronica Ferres, Armin Rohde, Lia Hoensbroech and Martin Horn, and opened at the Piazza Grande of the Locarno Film Festival, followed by the NY and San Francisco Jewish film festivals. In 2012 Boeken produced Christian Duguay’s “Jappeloup”, the horse jumping saga starring Guillaume Canet and Daniel Auteuil. In 2014, he made Football World Cup film with Dany Cohn Bendit, “On the road with Socrates” for Arte France and Germany, followed by the Italian co-production of “CARA VENEZIA” by Wilma Labate, which was selected in the Venice Film Festival. “Last Picture Show in Bucharest” is Boeken’s latest feature film.

Artistic Statement

Ten years ago I discovered the story of Eliahu, in a tiny article in the French newspaper “LE MONDE” recalling the military trial in Israel, 50 years earlier, of a deserter from Tsahal who had crossed the planet in search of justice, and revenge.

I had just finished my film Unter Bauern, about life on a German farm where a Jewish family was hidden throughout the Nazi period by local farmers–themselves members of the Nazi party, whose sons were fighting and dying for Hitler.

A film about humanity and courage in the face of absolute evil.

And suddenly Eliahu was there. The Jew who did not forgive, forget, and let go. The man, a boy almost, who single handedly pursued his own justice. Even though he had to pay an immense price to do so, even though it no doubt would not bring him peace.

Eliahu, his quest, his suffering, even his crimes, became mythology for me, his story a classical tragedy.

And soon I realized that I wasn’t alone in this.

The few whom I shared the sparse details of Eliahu’s quest with, be they in Israel, in Germany, in France, in the US, reacted with the same awe, admiration, and feelings of guilt–why did not all do as he did? Why was he the only one?

Together with a small group of determined colleagues (including my scientist son) we studied and researched Eliahu’s story, in Israel, in Romania, in France, even in Vietnam, through military and civilian archives, through contacts with generals and policemen and judges and historians and writers and reporters and with sometimes sheer luck.

And I came to realize that Eliahu did his deed for he was one of the few who knew the murderer, who could put a face to a name, and who, once he knew where the man had fled to, could not ignore his duty, his fate, however gruesome.

Eliahu was caught in an inescapable reality that would drive him along to the other end of the world–and back.

This singular quality of the man and his story not only makes Eliahu an unwanted hero, but also a cinematographic hero.

Of course the film I wrote with Adi Shoval is not a documentary but an interpretation of the true story and the true Eliahu.

I have come to know Eliahu, and admire him.

For authenticity’s sake we decided to shoot the film in the languages of the story: Hebrew, Romanian, French, German and even a little bit of Italian, with actors who were willing to embark with all their hearts and talent on this tough journey.

We found young Romanian actor Paul Diaconescu ready to learn the Hebrew of a new immigrant in 1951, Israeli-French actress Julia Levy Boeken (yes, my daughter), with deep knowledge and feeling for the role of Holocaust survivor, olah hadasha, as well as leading lady, to master dialogues in Romanian, and the Romanian/American actor and theatre director Cristian Balint ready to embody the villain, the hunter becoming the hunted. I also pride myself in persuading Israeli director Eitan Anner, in whose last film A QUIET HEART (Lev Shaked Meod) I had the honor of playing a small role, to dig into his own Romanian roots and portray the courageous Jewish lawyer, Carp, both survivor and chronicler of the Romanian Shoa. The great Israeli actress Tamar Keenan volunteered to ‘serve’ on the bench of the Military Court, thus lending her talent to the pursuit of an almost impossible justice in the case of Tsahal against the ‘deserter’ Eliahu.

Without the tenacious support of Producer Udi Yerushalmy who undertook the turning of Eliahu’s story into the film it is now from the very beginning, against all the odds–and there are many, when a small wholly Israeli production takes on a story that travels from Romania to Israel to Italy, France and ultimately to the jungles of Vietnam–this film would never have been created.

Thanks to him and co-producers Alex Osmolovsky and Michael Katrieh, production designer Eitan Levy who ‘drew’ the film with me, and the great cinematographer, Giora Bejach, we wouldn’t have anything to show you of the incredible story of Eliahu B…

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards

I Will Tell International Film Festival London

Israeli Film Academy Nominee for Best Art Direction -Eitan Levi (2021)

Miami Jewish Film Festival (2021)

Odesa International Film Festival (2021)

Jewish International Film Festival

Judy Levis Krug Virtual Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival (2021)

Festival of Israeli Cinema in Paris (2020)