Lecture
THE ART OF LIVING
Screening of “The Art of Living” and meeting Amir Har-Gil.
The film won the Public Favorite Award at the Real to Reel Festival in the US and was nominated for the Ofir Prize in the Best Documentary category.
A moving and fascinating film that describes the love story between Shraga Har-Gil, an Israeli who escaped the Nazis and his family perished in Auschwitz and Ulla Gassner, daughter and granddaughter of a Nazi family, owners of the factory that produced the gas containers for Auschwitz. After having escaped the Nazis Shraga enlisted into the “Hagana” and was badly wounded in the battle for liberating Yehiam. Shraga also engages in reckoning with the country he shed his blood for.
Suitable for discussion about different identities (Israeli, German, Jewish), about the presence of the past in our lives, about prejudices.
English translation is possible.
Length: 90-120 mins.
COMMENTS
“I watched your film “The Art of Living” once and then again and must admit that your work fascinated and moved me deeply. I would call the film “The Song of Songs of Old Age”. Your work shows an exceptional sensitivity and an ability to express a whole gamut of delicate tones and nuances which imbue the film and give it a unique character.”
Nissan Nativ
“I was very touched by your father’s story; in some ways it resonates my own biography… during periods I spent in Germany I too met (albeit not so intimately) people like Ulla (I have a relative by the same name, short for Ursula); I too was nicknamed “yekke” and at first had difficulties in adjusting to “sabra” society. It seems that we both mastered quite well the Hebrew language although it was not our mother tongue. The story of the immigration from Germany in the thirties still awaits a literary masterpiece or film and I do not mean historical research. Be that as it may, your film contributed an interesting and moving personal angle; it is really beautiful and very moving.
Prof. Raphael Nir, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University and Netanya Academic College
