Almost Peaceful

Based on Robert Bober's novel Quoi de Neuf Sur La Guerre? (What News of the War?), Michel Deville's Almost Peaceful is a memorable drama set within a community of Parisian Jews, circa 1946. The war has been over for more than a year, but the psychological wounds of the conflict are still fresh. At the center of the story is a tailor's shop run by a couple who fought in the Resistance: the husband seeks to keep Jewish culture alive through Yiddish theater, while his pregnant wife hopes to reignite the community by bringing in a new staff made up mostly of Holocaust survivors, each of whom have stories--of varying tragic degrees--to tell, of deportation, concentration camp internment, the loss of loved ones, and the lingering guilt of having survived when so many perished. Reminders of the war years keep cropping up--a survivor's encounter with a police official who arrested his family and sent them to deportation and death, the arrival of a child whose parents were killed by the Nazis, and so forth--and for some the horror of the past and the struggle to move forward is simply too much. Exploring how much resiliency the human spirit can mount in the face of unspeakable tragedy, Almost Peaceful is a work of great power and raw emotion, featuring a brilliant ensemble cast working with a gifted director. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (P. Hall)