In Susanne Kovács’s intimate dive into her household historical past, reminiscence is a tempestuous mistress. Brittle like glass, the ghosts of the previous hang-out generations of the Kovács household. Guided by the director’s want to be taught extra about her grandmother’s time within the Mauthausen focus camp – a painful chapter the aged matriarch refuses to open up to element – this documentary turns right into a historic excavation. Startling revelations reveal how violence can breed violence.
Because the digital camera patiently gazes over a wealth of household pictures, viewers get glimpses of Kovács’s grandmother Eva as a younger lady. There are additionally childhood footage of Kovács’s father, Peter, a smiling boy nestled between his dad and mom. The distinction between actuality and the happiness seen in these closeups is particularly wrenching. Quickly Eva, the stunning princess of a rich Jewish Hungarian household, might be deported to Mauthausen. As for Peter, he endured years of bodily and psychological abuse from his dad and mom. His father, additionally a Holocaust survivor, would shout horrible slurs at his little one, together with calling Peter a fascist.
Whereas Kovács sees this abuse by way of a compassionate lens, Peter wonders whether or not his father’s sadism was innate, predating his ordeal within the camp. Nonetheless, Kovács additionally feels a distance from her grandmother. The truth that Kovács’s mom was German with household hyperlinks to the Nazi regime actually complicates issues. Resisting the linearity of reminiscence and historical past, It Takes a Household acknowledges the impossibility of tying up free ends. To see Kovács cradling her child close to the top of the movie is transferring: a brand new being is coming into a knotty household historical past. Kovács’s willingness to confront the previous means that the injuries of intergenerational trauma may be healed.
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