My new article titled "Shattered Encounters: From My Father's House (1947) to My Father's House (2008)", was just published in Pivot: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and Thought (York University).
Abstract: In films produced both in pre-state Israel and in the early decades of the fledgling state, Holocaust survivors were depicted as traumatized individuals healed by the veteran Jews and transformed into active, strong, healthy civilians in the new land. By the late 1970s, however, Israeli society had changed, as did the cinematic representation of the encounter between native Israelis and Holocaust survivors. Films from that era onwards represent the survivors as neglected by veteran Israelis and relegated to the margins of society. The article analyzes the profound change that took place between these earlier and later cinematic depictions through the lenses of two films that tell the same story – but from completely different perspectives: Beit Avi [My Father’s House], directed by Herbert Kline in 1947, and Beit Avi [Homeland], directed by Dani Rosenberg in 2008. While sharing the same Hebrew title, these films were produced in different eras and thus shed light on vastly different depictions of similar encounters.
