The Reclaimed Narrative

Synopsis

“The Reclaimed Narrative”, my new film, documents a personal quest over the last 35 years to uncover and tell the full narrative of the Jewish people and what they experienced during the Holocaust in the Balkans. My mom joined me on this journey to track people, visit places and research untold stories that defied common perceptions and highlighted the struggle of the Jews to resist and survive, and mobilized help from righteous Bulgarians from all walks of life. The film reveals the actions of friends and the power of friendship as well as the harshness of the times and the difficult conditions and dangers that the survivors escaped. As the journey progresses it exposes sweet memories mixed with trauma and raises questions about the past—about the stories we know and those which remain hidden from our site. Join me on this trip as I try to reconstruct the past.

Monument to Love features a journey Jacky Comforty took with his mother, Ika Comforty Ovadia, for over 25 years to research, document, and uncover the narrative of the Jewish people during the Holocaust in Bulgaria. As the journey progressed, Ika’s personal story unfolded. She shared memories and read passages from her diary which revealed her observations, thoughts and feelings, as a young woman, facing a broken world, plunging into war. Kind acts of friendship she experienced contrast the cruel times and the dangers she and others escaped. Ika’s story is an anti-war manifesto, confronting totalitarianism and supremacy, and erecting a monument to love.

About the Director

Jacky Comforty is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose groundbreaking films have been shot in the United States, Germany, Israel, and Bulgaria. With decades of experience in independent film production focusing on both models of inclusive education and Holocaust Studies, he has developed a multidisciplinary, multicultural, and multilingual approach to collecting oral histories and creating meaningful multi-media projects, placing emphasis on non intrusive, non-scripted methodologies for documentation.

His credits include Balkan Jazz (2013), The Optimists (2001), In the Shadow of Memory (1998), and Through a Glass, Lightly (1996). Among numerous other distinctions, Comforty has received the Berlin Festival Peace Prize, the Jerusalem Film Festival’s Jewish Experience Award, a CINE Golden Eagle award, the American Association of Museums MUSE award, and the Chicago International Gold Hugo Award.

Artistic Statement

Some thirty-five years ago, I became interested in Bulgarian Jews, and the Holocaust. At that time, I was a young scriptwriter and director of comedy. I was close with my parents who were Bulgarian Jewish immigrants in Israel and supported my artistic aspirations. They once told me that, “There is one story you must tell, which is how we were saved during the Holocaust.” I had never heard the story before and at the time recorded this conversation on an audio-cassette tape. The conversation with my parents began the process of learning, researching, interviewing and creating multiple documentation projects about the Holocaust and its effect all over Europe, and particularly in Bulgaria. Over the years, I conducted about 250 oral histories which I used to produce four full-length documentaries and a dozen short movies. “Monument to Love ” is a result of 35 years of collection and documentation. The richness of the story and the depth of the work are clearly visible in the film. When I started to explore our heritage, the common notion was that there was no Holocaust in Bulgaria and that our people were saved. I interviewed hundreds of people, documented places and events, and collected archival films and photos. The story became more complex, and sometimes darker. I set out to document how they were saved. Yet, the stories people told were of resilience, resistance and survival and of friendships and kindness among common people, that were stronger than fascism, propaganda and hatred. My mom was very supportive and active from the start. She collected photos and took notes for me, researched bibliography and documents, and provided a personal context. She joined me on two trips to Bulgaria in 1990 and in 1999. At first, I wanted to hear mostly about historical events. Her role as witness was marginal. Over the years we kept exploring other aspects of her story and our mutual interest in the education of young children. At some late stage of our journey she even found her lost diary that provided a timely perspective. It took 30 years to film and tell this story. Through sharing voices and memories of those who survived the times, we construct a panorama of personal history, thoughts and diary entries, in response to the events of the time. We always were close, but the process of learning and our dialogue throughout the journey brought us closer, and helped us capture the essence of the story orally and the passing it on.