Mendel

Like many quality dramas, Mendel is about more than its ostensible subject--a tricky matter in this case, since its subject is the Holocaust. Set in 1954, the story focuses on 9-year-old Mendel Trotzig (Thomas Jungling Sorensen), a German Jew living as a refugee in Norway with his parents and teenage brother. Mendel doesn't understand why the family must live in this strange country, or why pictures of family members are hidden from him, or why conversations end when he enters the room. In short, he understands nothing about the event which ended before his birth yet blankets his existence like a dark cloud. Mendel effectively demonstrates that when parents try to "protect" their children from difficult truths, the children often create their own half-truths from whatever information they can gather: in this case, Mendel comes to believe that the situation could not really have been that bad (after all, his father repeatedly makes dark jokes) and therefore the Jews were cowards for accepting it without a fight. Ironically, Mendel turns into a rebel and a bully to display the courage he feels his family lacks. The narrative takes a few unnecessary detours (including mocking Christian proselytizers), and ends with an abrupt (almost literal) thud, but its performances and vision are strong. Recommended. (S. Renshaw)