The Kalusz I Thought I Knew

Israeli filmmaker Bernard Dichek grew up hearing a seemingly endless number of stories about his father's life in the Polish town of Kalusz in the years before World War II. The elder Dichek was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, and after immigrating to Canada, he never returned to his boyhood home. Bernard Dichek waited until after his dad's death to make his own pilgrimage to Kalusz; here, his voiceover narration accompanies contemporary footage (interspersed with an occasional vintage photo), to reveal that very little of what he heard described still remains—including the surrounding nation, since Kalusz is now located in Ukraine, not Poland. A rabbi from a neighboring community provides a local guide named Tanya to help with interviewing residents, but she knows little about the area's Jewish heritage, which only adds to Dichek's confusion. His attempts to find evidence of a long-lost Jewish presence turns out to be barely successful; only a few people are able to offer on-camera insights regarding the life of the pre-war Jewish inhabitants. One unlikely remnant of this vanished world is a local beer production plant—previously owned by Jewish brewers—that still creates an uncommonly fine beverage. Not surprisingly, The Kalusz I Thought I Knew has a slightly melancholic tinge, but ultimately it doesn't quite make all that much of an emotional impact regarding the lost links between past and present. Still, this will be welcome in larger Holocaust collections and should therefore be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)