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JEWISH CINEMATIC SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY

ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS
Carolina Rocha

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ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS', Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 9: 1, 37 48
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 Carolina Rocha

JEWISH CINEMATIC SELF-

REPRESENTATIONS IN
CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINE
AND BRAZILIAN FILMS
[email protected]
Dr
ModernCarolinaRocha
10.1080/14725880903549251
CMJS_A_455389.sgm
1472-5886
Original
Taylor
9102010
000002010
and
& Jewish
Article
Francis
(print)/1472-5894
Francis
Studies (online)

In recent years, young Latin American-Jewish film directors have produced films that portray
the Jewish communities in both Argentina and Brazil. While Argentine-Jewish filmmakers
have been prominent since the beginning of the film industry in Argentina, it is the first time
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a group of contemporary directors share the depiction of Jewish life and culture. For his part,
Brazilian-Jewish director Cao Hamburger also chooses to present the Jewish community of
So Paulo in his award-nominated film, O ano em que meus pais saram de frias [The
year my parents went on vacation (2007)]. This article explores what this self-representation
entails for Argentine-Jewish and Brazilian-Jewish filmmakers, as well as on the commonal-
ities of Jewish characters presented in the films of Daniel Burman, Gabriel Lichtmann, Ariel
Winograd and Cao Hamburger.

Introduction
Jewish producers, scriptwriters, directors and actors have always actively participated
in the national cinemas of both Argentina and Brazil since its inception at the end of the
nineteenth century. For example, in 1919 Max Glcksmann (18751946), a Polish-
Jewish immigrant, built a theatre called El Ateneo Grand Splendid, in Buenos Aires,
which 10 years later, became a cinema that screened the first sound films. Glcksmann
not only opened movie theatres but was also in charge of a news programme, Actual-
idades, and was a pioneer in documentary filmmaking. Decades later, Luis Saslavsky
(19031995), a prominent Argentine-Jewish director during the studio era, took part
in more than 30 films between the years 1931 to 1979. His contemporary Len
Klimosky (19061996), although trained as a dentist, founded the cineclub, directed
several films in Argentina, and later made commercial films in Spain. In Brazil, Len
Hirszman (19371987), who belonged to the Cinema Novo generation, directed Eles
no usam black tie [They dont wear black tie (1981)], a film that received wide domestic
and international critical attention. In addition to these directors, the list of Jewish
producers, actors and scriptwriters is quite remarkable considering the relatively small
percentage of the Jews in Argentina and Brazil. 1
However, the last 15 years have witnessed a heightened interest in the depiction of
Jewish characters and Jewish life in these countries by Argentine and Brazilian filmmak-
ers.2 For example, in Argentina in 1996 Eduardo Mignona directed Sol de otoo [Autumn

Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol 9, No. 1 March 2010, pp. 3748
ISSN 1472-5886 print/ISSN 1472-5894 online 2010 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/14725880903549251
 38 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

sun], a comedy with a cast composed mainly of non-Jewish actors. Indeed, the central
character, Clara Goldstein (Norma Leandro), who is Jewish, leads a carefully structured
life that is disrupted by her brothers announcement of an imminent visit. Trying to
impress him, Clara sets out to find herself a Jewish boyfriend, but only non-Jewish men
answer her advertisement. Thus, Clara, whose Jewishness is kept secret, has to train one
of her suitors to be Jewish. Sol de otoo makes it clear that Jewishness can be performed
by using certain words and emphasizing certain customs. 3 The film, intended for a
general audience, did relatively well at the box office and received several awards. 4 In
1998, another non-Jewish director, Daniel Barone, directed Cohen versus Rossi, a light
comedy about an Italian and a Jewish family from Buenos Aires who quarrel and later
reconcile. Cohen versus Rossi, which had a cast of both Jewish and non-Jewish actors to
represent Jewish characters,5 enjoyed an excellent box office success. Three years later,
Barone and Antonio Ottone released Un amor en Moisesville [A love in Moisesville] with
a non-Jewish actor in the leading male role, but with the Argentine-Jewish actress Cipe
Lincovsky in the leading female role.
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These examples from Argentina can be compared with recent developments in

Brazilian cinema, which have centred on the persecution faced by Jews in both Portugal
and Brazil. In 1996, Jom Tob Azulay directed O Judeu [The Jew], a film that focused on
the plight of the eighteenth-century Brazilian-born intellectual Antnio Jos da Silva
(17051739) who was burned at the stake by the Portuguese Inquisition. In 2004,
Jayme Monjardim directed Olga, a historical docudrama based on the life of Olga
Benrio Prestes (personified by non-Jewish actress Camila Morgado), a Jewish commu-
nist militant who was deported to Germany because of her political involvement in
Brazilian politics during the late 1930s and, as a result, died in a concentration camp. In
2005, Joo Batista de Andrade made Vlado treinta anos depois [Vlado thirty years later
(2005)], a documentary based on the life of Vladimir Herzog, a Jewish journalist,
professor and filmmaker. Because of his militancy in the Communist Party, Herzog died
in 1975 while being interrogated by members of the Brazilian intelligence agency in
charge of suppressing dissident activities. While it is certainly worth exploring the trig-
gers for these recent cinematic representations of Jewish characters and victims by non-
Jewish filmmakers, the purpose of my article is to examine another equally interesting
phenomenon: the cinematic self-representation of Jewish life and characters, that is to
say, the representations recently directed by contemporary Argentine-Jewish and
Brazilian-Jewish filmmakers who portray Argentine-Jewish and Brazilian-Jewish
characters. This is the first time in the national cinemas of Argentina and Brazil
that Argentine-Jewish and a Brazilian-Jewish filmmakers have turned the camera on
Argentine- and Brazilian-Jewish characters to capture their challenges and experiences
in the diaspora.

Contemporary Argentine- and Brazilian-Jewish

filmmakers
My analysis includes a group of young filmmakers, the oldest being Brazilian Cao
Hamburger, born in 1962; Argentine Daniel Burman, born in 1972; Gabriel Lichtmann,
born in 1974; and Ariel Winograd, born in 1977. Besides their similar age, these film-
makers have all directed films during the last 10 years, a fact that renders them members
 JEWISH SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS 39

of the same generation. Burmans Esperando al Mesas [Waiting for the Messiah] was
released in 2001, El abrazo partido [The lost embrace] in 2004 and Derecho de familia
[Family law] in 2006. Gabriel Lichtmanns first feature-length film Judos en el espacio
[Jews in space] and Ariel Winograds Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto [Cheese head: My
first ghetto] were both premiered in 2006, and Cao Hamburgers O ano em que meus pais
saram de frias [The year my parents went on vacation] was released in 2007.
In addition to having released films in the 20012007 period, these filmmakers
share other similarities. They are part of the second or third generation of Jewish immi-
grants. Because they were born in Latin America, they have not experienced the immi-
gration process, as their forebears have done. Consequently, there are almost no
descriptions of the first stages of immigration, the culture shock or the process of assim-
ilation. In addition, these filmmakers are also urbanites, born and raised either in Buenos
Aires or So Paulo and therefore in contact with Latin Americas most sizeable Jewish
communities. Third, they have reached a high level of education, completing post-
secondary education: Lichtmann and Winograd studied film and Burman studied law
and audiovisual media production. 6 Nonetheless, these filmmakers share their depiction
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of contemporary Argentine-Jewish and Brazilian-Jewish life, and their success in some-

thing that transcends the Jewish community and has broader implications for the study
of ethnic minority groups in Latin America, which is what I call a process of de-hiding
or making minority groups visible to a larger audience. 7 This process of de-hiding takes
the form of illustrating certain rituals of Argentine-Jewish and Brazilian-Jewish culture
that have previously scarcely been touched upon in cinematic representations. In other
words, for the first time Jewish filmmakers are screening Jewish characters and record-
ing Jewish life in Argentina and Brazil.
This process of de-hiding entails incorporating words in different languages and
exhibiting customs that are not widespread in either Argentina or Brazil to mainstream
audiences. Indeed, older characters use Yiddish in the films by Lichtmann and
Hamburger, a rare feature if we consider that Goldman cites Pobre mariposa [Poor butter-
fly (Ral de la Torre, 1986)] as one of the few mainstream films in which a Jewish char-
acter is identified by her use of this language. Pobre mariposa is more an exception than a
rule in previous cinematic representations of Jewish characters. However, the use of
Yiddish in Pobre mariposa and in these recent films underscores the fact that the majority
of Jewish characters depicted are descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who migrated in large
numbers to both Argentina and Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore,
klezmer is also introduced in El abrazo partido. In addition, Jewish characters are shown
holding a seder in Judos en el espacio, celebrating bar-mitzvahs in Esperando al Mesas and
O ano em que meus pais saram de frias, and also attending funerals that follow the Jewish
tradition in Derecho de familia and O ano em que meus pais saram de ferias. The fact that
Jewish religious rites and ceremonies are portrayed indicates a desire to represent
Jewish characters as faithfully as possible for a non-Jewish audience. 8
In creating and recording images of Jewish practices in contemporary Latin
America, these filmmakers not only stress Jewish specificity but also compose a corpus
of visual representations about how Jewishness has been, and is, lived and performed in
Argentina and Brazil over a period of four decadesfrom the early 1970s of O ano em
que meus pais saram de frias to the most recent (2007) Derecho de familia. For film scholar
Tzvi Tal, this depiction of Jewish urban life appears disconnected from the past and insti-
tutional Jewish life, and thus distorts the traditional Jewish concern with memory. 9
 40 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

That is to say, these films centre on a diegetic present without representing or problem-
atizing history. However, the existence of this corpus is by itself a remarkable step in
the process of making visible a minority community that now occupies a place on the
screen. Moreover, this corpus provides an opportunity for Jewish filmmakers to repre-
sent themselves without the mediation or biases that non-Jewish directors may deploy
in their films.
Despite the variety of genres and stories presented by these Latin-Jewish American
filmmakers, the films by Burman, Hamburger, Lichtmann and Winograd show Jewish
characters in the cities of Buenos Aires and So Paulo, a fact that may stress their accep-
tance and integration. Far from being represented in the provinces or marginal areas,
their location and representation in centres of finance and culture Argentina and Brazil
stress their significant participation in national life. However, these characters are
rarely seen as isolated from the Jewish community, a strategy that may also help to
minimize the issue of assimilation. In other words, while the Jewishness of these char-
acters may appear to be diluted due to their lack of proficiency in Yiddish and their
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almost entirely secular lives, the fact that they are shown as members of the Jewish
secular community reinforces their belonging to this group. Argentine Jews maintain
certain traditions and socialize in Jewish clubs and schools without necessarily having
strong bonds with Jewish institutions, a fact that gives them a sense of belonging to
their group.
Whether situated in Once or Villa Crespo, two neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires
where many Argentine Jews reside, or the neighbourhood of Bom Retiro in So Paulo,
popular among immigrants in Brazil, the Jewish characters presented in these films are
always part of a close-knit family and a larger Ashkenazi community. Both these groups
provide a link to the past and a sense of fitting into the wider Latin-American societies.
These films also have bildung in common, in order to present a Jewish male at a
time of his life when a crucial negotiation takes place between tradition and everyday
life in predominantly Catholic countries. Julia Kushigian notes that the function of the
Bildungsroman is to chronicle the coming of age, as it describes/inscribes those people
who come of age and develop regardless of where they started, at what point they
finish, and what outcomes may be. 10 This is the case in Burmans films, where the
main protagonists are Ariel Goldstein in Esperando al Mesas, Ariel Makaroff in El abrazo
partido and Ariel Perelman in Derecho de familia, all played by Uruguayan-Jewish actor
Daniel Hendler. These Jewish characters all experience a process of negotiation
between their inherited Jewishness and the modelling of their Jewish identity in
contemporary times. They do so in different ways. In Esperando al Mesas and El abrazo
partido, the Ariel characters face the dilemma of remaining in the ghetto (as the
Jewish neighbourhood in Once is called) and following in their fathers footsteps and
becoming businessmen, or attempting different professions outside the predictable
life in the protected environment of Jewish business. Another factor that influences
the decisions of these characters is their grappling with what it means to be a Jewish
Argentine. That is to say, they seek to balance their identity as Argentine Jews in rela-
tion to the identity of older members of the Jewish community and, in the process,
they emerge with a synthesis of both cultures. As a result, the Ariel in Esperando al
Mesas and the Ariel in El abrazo partido display the tension between a form of Jewish-
ness that is acceptable for an older generation and a process of seeking meaningful
models as members of a twentieth-century diaspora group. In the end, they embrace
 JEWISH SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS 41

Jewishness by continuing to live in the Jewish neighbourhood, and Argentine identity

when they distance themselves from their Jewish girlfriends in favour of other women,
not all of whom are Jewish.
While presenting the same issue of negotiating a Jewish identity in the diaspora, the
bildung of Ariel Perelman in Derecho de familia yields a different outcome. In this film,
perhaps the most autobiographical of Burmans productions, Ariel is a lawyer like his
father, a fact that may point to the continuation of a family tradition. However, when
the father dies, the filial link with the past seems to disappear, and Ariel, like Burman
himself, married to a non-Jew, chooses to live a primarily secular life and focuses more
on parenting than on upholding Jewish traditions. The family law or legacy is subtly
reworked to focus on the relationship of a young father with his son. The inherited
Jewishness of this character becomes a more spiritual and less evident trait. 11 Indeed,
within a multicultural society, Burman seems to be questioning the validity of empha-
sizing minority belonging.
The process of development and formation is also evident in Judos en el espacio, Cara
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de queso: Mi primer ghetto and O ano em que meus pais saram de frias. The male Jewish
protagonists are, at the same time, members and observers of the dynamics of their
Jewish families and the Jewish community as a whole. Lichtmanns Judos en el espacio
revolves around Santiago (Fernando Rubio), who is an observer of his familys strengths
and weaknesses. Involved in finding his own place in the world and fighting his shyness,
Santiago is propelled by his cousin Luciana (Luna Paiva) to reconnect with his Jewish
family. The occasion could not have been more appropriate, as their Jewish grandfather
(Axel Anderson) has lost his will to live and his daughters have been estranged for years.
At Lucianas initiative, Santiago agrees to celebrate a seder, an event that allows the
entire family to come together as in the past and settle old disputes that have contributed
to its dispersion. Judos en el espacio does not intend to propose grandiose solutions to the
status of Argentine Jews. Rather, it presents the way in which a family can unite by cele-
brating its traditions and honouring its elders, disregarding the misunderstandings that
have disrupted its unity.
The process of formation in Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto revolves around the
summer experiences of a Jewish adolescent. In Winograds film, the character of Ariel
(Sebastian Montagna) is an alter ego of the director. The film is set in a summer in the
early 1990s. Ariel witnesses the abuse of a friend in the seemingly controlled and
protected environment of the gated community of the Jewish country club. As a
witness, Ariel faces peer, parental and societal pressure to alter his testimony about this
incident. Thus, Ariel confronts the dilemma of yielding to the demands of others or
acquiring his own voice. Presented as a comedy, Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto deals with
important issues, such as compliance and resistance, and belonging and exclusion. These
fundamental issues faced by everyone in their process of development are, nonetheless,
presented in a film where Jewish characters are often satirized. The self-deprecating
kind of humour that American film scholars David Desser and Lester Friedman have
identified in films made by Jewish-American directors is used by Winograd to attract
Jewish and non-Jewish audiences alike. 12
In O ano em que meus pais saram de frias, the plotline focuses on Mauro (Michel
Joelsas), who is similar in age and upbringing (he has a Jewish father) to director Cao
Hamburger. When his parents need to evade the authorities, Mauro is left under the
supervision of his grandfather, but the old man passes away minutes before Mauro
 42 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

arrives. Mauros process of development entails not only adapting to strangershis

grandfathers neighboursbut also coming into contact with Jewish rites and traditions
for the first time. In the absence of a nuclear family, Mauro is unofficially adopted first
by Shlomo (Germano Haiut) and later by the Jewish and non-Jewish community of Bom
Retiro. The process is far from being an easy one, as at the beginning Mauro resists
wearing a kippah at his grandfathers funeral, and plays with his caretakers talit. While
in Shlomos care, he is called Moises, a name he strongly rejects, though he does become
interested in learning about this biblical figure. As the film progresses, he becomes less
resistant to Jewish religiosity and experiences other facets of Jewish life, such as a bar-
mitzvah, which he comes to appreciate.
The use of Bildung may also be related to cinematic exposure (or lack thereof) of
these young directors. In the case of Lichtmann and Winograd, their Jewish films are
also their first feature films. In a conversation I had in with Gabriel Lichtmann in July
2007, he pointed out that writers (he also wrote the script of Judos en el espacio) and film-
makers tend to resort to what they in order know to create their films; in his case, what
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he knows first-hand is the Jewish community in which he grew up. This certainly seems
to be the case with Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto, in which not only does the male protag-
onist share the same name with the director, but the plot is set when Winograd was a
teenager like Ariel. In Burmans case, his trilogy of Jewish films is not his first produc-
tion as director. However, because his previous filmsUn crisantemo estalla en cinco
esquinas [A chrysanthemum bursts in Cinco esquinas (1998)] and Todas las azafatas van al
cielo [All stewardesses go to Heaven (2002)]have been largely ignored by the public,
his Jewish trilogy represents his trademark. 13 Moreover, discussing Esperando al Mesas
and El abrazo partido in an interview with film scholar Tamara Falicov, Burman explained
his motivation for making films focusing on Argentine Jews. He states: I feel like
making these films and I continue to make them as a way to reflect upon my search for
identity.14 Thus, Burmans cinematography seems to follow the bildung trajectory
through which characters and directors strive for personal development. Indeed, critics
have recognized that the Ariels, the various protagonists of his trilogy, are Burmans
alter egos. For El abrazo partido, Burman collaborated with Argentine-Jewish writer
Marcelo Birmajer. In an interview with Birmajer in 2007, he indicated to me that certain
scenes in El abrazo partido are based on his own life, as in a scene in which Ariels mother
recalls an incident from Ariels childhood. Moreover, the character of Ariels grand-
mother is modelled on that of Birmajers own grandmother.
The insertion of autobiographical material is also evident in the work of Cao
Hamburger, a successful producer of a television program for children, which resulted
in a popular film, Castelo Ra-Tim Bum (1995). Not only did O ano em que meus pais saram
de frias mark his debut as director of a feature film, but the script was based on his
childhood memories. According to Scarlett Cheng, Hamburger relied heavily on his
experiences:

In several key ways, Mauros story mirrors Hamburgers own experiences growing
up in Brazil. He was passionate about soccer and, perhaps more profoundly, was the
product of a multicultural environmenthis father was a German Jew and his
mother an Italian Catholic; both taught physics at the University of So Pauloand
he was directly affected by the turbulent politics of the day. I remember that period
like this, Hamburger, 45, begins. When my parents went on vacationwhen my
 JEWISH SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS 43

parents were arrested it was so mysterious, its a mysterious age in my mind.

They werent dissidents, but they helped people. 15

The search for his family roots was the concern of another project as well. Variety
reported that Hamburger was involved in raising funds to finance a television documen-
tary about members of his family who owned property in Germany. 16
The presentation of the Jewish community is inextricably linked with the shaping
of these filmmakers own personal identities. In O ano em que meus pais saram de ferias, as
in Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto, the constitution of a Jewish identity is related to the
memories of a past in which the protagonist grappled with issues of belonging and differ-
ence. The development of the main characters individual identity is also realized within
the larger scenario of a close-knit Jewish community that acts as a strong and decisive
point of influence for his development.
The main characters in all these films act both as members and observers of their
Jewish communities. This double view seems to combine intimate close-ups with
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medium-distance shots to provide different takes on the Jewish community. While as

members of Jewish communities, the leading male characters participate in traditional
celebrations and rituals, as observers they caricature certain traits of contemporary
Argentine-Jewish and Brazilian-Jewish life, like competing to attract the best rabbi, or
exhibiting the neurosis of Jewish mothers, simultaneously lovable and overbearing. The
deployment of this technique is closely related to the use of humour in these films.
Indeed, all of these are light comedies in which serious topics, such as economic crises,
political persecution or the breakup of family cohesiveness, are downplayed by the use
of Jewish humour. However, my interpretation differs from Albert Memmis assertion
that Jewish humour tells of the fundamental lack of adaptation of the Jew to non-Jewish
society,15 because the humour presented in these films seeks to create a bond with a
non-Jewish society by exhibiting the contradictions and traits of a minority group in a
non-threatening way. If, for example, the audience laughs at Santiagos stage fright
during the performance and reenactment of a play about the diaspora, do they react to
the plight of a Jewish boy or to a situation to which everyone is able to relate? The same
logic seems to apply for the older Jewish characters who are stubborn, melancholic or
set in their ways. These Jewish filmmakers appear to invite viewers to decide on the
extent of Jewishness in the scenes that make us laugh.
All these films present the insiders point of view on the Jewish characters, a fact
that humanizes a community that in many films has been represented by the stereotypes
that film scholar Omer Bartov lists in The Jew in Cinema. Bartov classifies Jewish charac-
ters as perpetrators, victims, heroes and anti-heroes. 16 Just as Bartov bases his classifi-
cation of Jewish characters on a survey of American and European films, in a recent
article regarding stereotypes in Latin American newspapers, Jos C. Moya also identi-
fies stereotypes to represent Jews when he states that during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, Jews were often imaged through the stereotypes of greedy capital-
ists and anti-capitalist radicals.19 O ano em que meus pais saram de ferias, set in the turbu-
lent 1970s in Brazil, briefly shows Mauros father fleeing the control of the repressive
Brazilian forces, perhaps as a result of opposition to capitalism and fascism, and Cara de
queso: Mi primer ghetto revolves around four teenage boys who are more interested in
asserting their identities vis--vis those of their parents than in amassing large fortunes.
With the exception of these two films, all the other films by the Jewish filmmakers
 44 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

studied here not only transcend those previous stereotypes used to represent Jewish
characters, but also, and more importantly, present Jewish characters as affected by the
same socioeconomic variables as the majority of the population. Indeed, avoiding polar-
izing portrayals of avaricious Jewish businessmen and violent Jewish reformers, what is
evident is the middle-class status of the Jewish characters.
The middle-class status of the characters in the films by Burman, Hamburger,
Lichtmann and Winograd constitutes a symbol of the integration of Jewish characters
into the national cultures of Argentina and Brazil. Stressing their mainstream status may
also be a technique used to appeal to middle-class audiences. Tzvi Tal asserts that in
general, these films interpelan al pblico con narrativas de la clase media urbana acon-
gojada por la subsistencia econmica y los conflictos familiares [address the public with
narratives pertaining to the urban middle-class overwhelmed by economic survival and
family conflicts].20 Indeed, what these films seem to stress is the similar fate of both
Jewish and non-Jewish citizens in times of economic crisis. For example, in Esperando al
Mesas Ariel is forced to look for a job independent of his fathers business because sales
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and consumption have fallen abruptly in the year 2000 and the family business is no
longer as profitable as it used to be. The same is true in El abrazo partido, where a tradi-
tional shopping mall, a galera [arcade], is struggling to remain in business amid
decreased sales and subsequent bankruptcies. In Derecho de familia, Ariel Perelman
declines to join his father in his law office and prefers to work for the state and teach at
a public university, perhaps the most obvious symbols of integration into the national
state and middle-class status. The Rubin family of Judos en el espacio owns a jewellery
store that has also been affected by the economic downturn. As the three sisters in this
film debate what to do with this family business, the protagonist, Santiago, has chosen
an independent career path as a chef in a restaurant. The exception to an impoverished
middle class is the Argentine-Jewish family of Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto. They enjoy
a good standard of living that allows them to vacation in a gated country club, a novelty
in the 1990s. However, this seemingly protected life is simultaneously represented and
criticized:21 Miguel Fras, the reviewer for Clarn, notes that the homogenization of life
in the country club is shown as un mundo adulto que promete ser asfixiante, intoler-
ante, injusto [an adult world that promises to be asphyxiating, intolerant, unjust]. 21
The enclosed setting of the country club that may be perceived as privileged is shown to
be suffocating.
When politics is mentioned, as is the case in O ano em que meus pais saram de ferias,
the focus is not on the victimization or persecution of Jews alone. Political events affect
Jewish characters and other Brazilians alike. The allusion to divisive politics in
Hamburgers film is minimal because the emphasis lies in showing the integration of vari-
ous communities (Italian, Greek, Jewish) as they mingle in the neighbourhood of Bom
Retiro. For instance, when police forces take over the university and imprison dissidents,
the ethnicity of those who are repressed are never clearly shown, so that the focus is on
the oppression of all Brazilians, independent of their background. Furthermore, O ano
em que meus pais saram de frias stresses an idyllic representation of Brazilianness, shaped
on the countrys success as a World Cup champion.
If stereotypes are absent from these films, so are portrayals that represent Jewish
characters as victims of either antisemitism or discrimination. Elsewhere I have discussed
the fact that Burmans Esperando al Mesas and El abrazo partido not only depict Jewish char-
acters, but also include other immigrants who inhabit Once, such as Koreans, Bolivians
 JEWISH SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS 45

and Italians. They constitute a multi-ethnic mosaic of which Jews constitute a part, a fact
that demonstrates tolerance and integration. 22 The same impulse towards amalgamation
appears in O ano em que meus pais saram de ferias, where the paulistano neighbourhood of
Bom Retiro is home to Italian and Greek immigrants, as well as to a gifted black soccer
player whom the protagonist, Mauro, seeks to emulate. In representing multi-ethnic
communities, these Jewish filmmakers seem to agree with Jeffrey Lesser and Ranaan
Reins views that there are other diaspora communities: Jews, of course, have no
monopoly on the Diaspora, and the relationship between national- and immigrant-
originated ethnic identity is not unique to Jews. 23 Hence, there is a subtle attempt to
relate the diaspora origin of Jewish characters to the fact that both Argentina and Brazil
have been societies open to multiple immigrant groups since the nineteenth century.
The careful emphasis on being inclusive and representing a variety of national and
ethnic groups within Argentine and Brazilian societies exhibited by these films stresses
the level of integration the Jewish characters have achieved within these countries. In
the past, Argentine and Brazilian Jews endured accusations of dual loyalty that were
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used as a means to discriminate against them and display the xenophobia of nationalist
groups.24 Thus matters that are cautiously avoided in the majority of these films are
present-day politics and references to the state of Israel, the latter due to the filmmak-
ers fear of being considered disloyal to their countries. 25
The only film that alludes to Israel is El abrazo partido; but its insertion into the plot
corresponds to the personal plight of the protagonist. Elas Makaroff (Jorge DElia),
Ariels father, lives in Israel. At first, the official reason for his leaving for Israel is his
desire to participate in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. However, as part of Ariels
process of development, he discovers that his father has left as a result of the breakdown
of his marriage. Facing his wifes infidelity, Elas chooses to self-exile himself, but none-
theless, he fulfils his parental obligations by calling his family in Argentina monthly and
sending financial support to his sons. Another characteristic that presents this character
as positive is his evident physical disability, that is, the loss of his arm. The fact that he
has been disabled further demystifies the years he spent in Israel, as his own body bears
the marks of the violence experienced in the Middle East. However, this sensitive topic
is handled carefully. Far from being a victim of either his failed marriage or his life
choices, this character conveys a sense of balance and inner fortitude, displayed for the
benefit of his still immature son, who seeks a father figure to guide him.
To conclude, these films constitute the first cinematic corpus in which Jewish char-
acters are presented by a group of young Jewish filmmakers in Latin America. This is a
significant innovation if we consider that Argentine and Brazilian Jews have always been
involved in filmmaking, yet they have seldom represented members of the Jewish
communities in their films. The most noticeable among contemporary Argentine-
Jewish filmmakers whose films pay lip service to ethnic concerns is the late Fabin
Bielinsky (19592006). Before his unexpected death, Bielinsky directed Nueve reinas
[Nine queens (2000)] and El aura [The aura (2005)], both well received by international
and domestic audiences. With the exception of a secondary character named Sandler in
Nueve reinas, neither film portrays Jewish life in Argentina. My purpose in mentioning
Bielinsky is to emphasize that the Jewish filmmakers studied here have taken the road
less travelled when, with less experience and fewer contacts than commercial filmmak-
ers enjoy, they have chosen to represent Jewish characters. In doing so, they have made
visible the diversity of issues facing Jews in Argentina and Brazil, but also, and more
 46 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

importantly, they have highlighted a community that has scarcely been represented
before in the national cinemas of Argentina and Brazil. In addition, these filmmakers are
challenging narrowly defined concepts of what it means to be Argentine, Brazilian and
Jewish by also depicting members of a variety of ethnic communities in Buenos Aires
and So Paulo. While the plots of these films vary, there are certainly points in common,
such as the construction of Jewish identity in the diaspora communities of Argentina and
Brazil, particularly centred around male protagonists, and the reliance on bildung.
If my analysis has dealt with what has been represented on the screen, it is also
worthwhile to comment briefly on the filmmakers themselves. Their middle-class back-
ground, training in film schools and access to both national credit and international
financial support gives them an indisputable and privileged vantage point from which to
put these films together. Burman, Hamburger, Lichtmann and Winograd are the visible
representatives of a larger group of Jewish filmmakers that have not focused on the life
of their Jewish community, such as Martn Rejtman, Ana Katz, Rodrigo Moreno, Diego
Lerman, Damin Szifron, Daniel Burak, and many others. What is also significant is the
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fact that these filmmakers did not have domestic models or forerunners. The explora-
tion of the filmmakers who have inspired them certainly constitutes an area for future
research.
Even as the existence of this corpus denotes a concern about the status and construc-
tion of the identity of Argentine-Brazilian Jews, it has not exhausted the themes and
characters that can be represented vis--vis this community. For instance, Orthodox
Jews have not yet been depicted in these films, despite their visible presence in Buenos
Aires. Although many Jewish women are featured in the films I have analysed, they all
take secondary roles. A female Jewish bildung would certainly complement these films
that portray the male process of formation. Finally, the representation of Sephardi Jews,
also present in both countries, though in fewer numbers, would also enhance and
expand the ideas that mainstream audiences have about the Jewish community.

Notes
1. According to the American Jewish Year Book quoted by Jeffrey Lesser and Raanan
Rein, as of 2005 the Jewish population of Argentina reached 185,000, out of a total
population of 37.9 million, Argentine Jews constituting 0.5% of the total population.
In Brazil there were 96,700 Jews in a total population of 179,100,000 Brazilian Jews
representing 0.05% of the total population (Lesser and Rein 67).
2. I have used the term Argentine and Brazilian filmmakers to refer to those who are
not themselves Jewish. Film critic Tzvi Tal does not make this distinction between
films by Jewish and non-Jewish filmmakers (see Tal 430).
3. As Ilene Goldman asserts, ultimately, the presentation and representation of Jewish-
ness in Sol de otoo [Autumn sun] confirm the flux of identity of a Diasporic culture
within a metropolis populated by immigrants and wanderers.
4. It received five Silver Condors (the most prestigious Argentine film awards) for Best
Actress, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film and Best Director. It also
garnered several international awards: a Goya (Spain) as the Best Film in the Spanish
Language, a Best Actress award at the Havana Film Festival, an honourable mention
at the Oslo Festival, and two awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
 JEWISH SELF-REPRESENTATIONS IN ARGENTINE AND BRAZILIAN FILMS 47

5. It was the second most viewed Argentine film, and was ranked eighth among the 10
most popular films seen in Argentina in 1998.
6. Tal 425.
7. Even though both Brazil and Argentina have accepted numerous and diverse immi-
grants, only recently have films begun to explore this topic. For a large part of the
twentieth century, and due to the prevailing ideas of nationalism and national loyal-
ties, immigrants and ethnic minorities were not widely represented.
8. In Omer Bartovs study, The Jew in Cinema, Jewish traditions and rites are absent in the
many Eastern European and American films analysed.
9. Tal 427.
10. Kushigian 15.
11. As Ty Burr, the reviewer for the Boston Globe, has noted (2006), [Derecho de familia]
also touches on the issue of ethnicity and its disappearance in modern culture.
12. Desser and Friedman assert that self-deprecating and self ironic Jewish humor has
been a constant companion of a people forced to live under someone elses rules,
often-unwelcome inhabitants of someone elses religious state (14).
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13. According to the DEISICA of 1998, Un crisantemo estalla en cinco esquinas [A chrysan-
themum bursts in Cincoesquinas] was seen by 3,288 viewers. Although there is no
precise information regarding Todas las azafatas van al cielo [All stewardesses go to
Heaven], it is not listed among the 10 most popular Argentine films of 2002 (informa-
tion provided in DEISICA 12), which listed Bolivia (2002) by Adrin Caetano in the
tenth place with over 50,000 viewers.
14. Falicov 136 (my emphasis).
15. Cheng, Scarlett.
16. Cajueiro.
17. Memmi, quoted in Desser and Friedman (13).
18. Bartov.
19. Moya 55.
20. Tal 430.
21. Frias.
22. See Rochas The Many Faces of Buenos Aires.
23. Lesser and Rein 25.
24. See Rein.
25. Rein 5171.

References
Bartov, Omer. The Jew in Cinema. From The Golem to Dont Touch my Holocaust. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Burman, Daniel, dir. Esperando al Mesas [Waiting for the Messiah]. BD Cine, 2001.
. Derecho de familia (Family Law). BD Cine, 2006.
. El abrazo partido (The Lost Embrace). BD Cine, 2004.
Burr, Ty. In Family Law, its Like Father, Unlike Son. Boston Globe 14 December 2006.
<http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=9442>.
Cajueiro, Marcelo. Cao-Hamburger Writer-Director. Variety International 8 November
2007. <http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975640.html?categoryid=19&
cs=1>.
 48 JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

Cheng, Scarlett. Kicking around in Cao Hamburgers Mind. Los Angeles Times 10
February 2008. <http://www.cjfilmfest.org/festival/09FamilyVacation_LATimes
Review.pdf>.
DEISICA Sindicato de la Industria Cinematogrfica. Buenos Aires.
Desser, David, and Lester Friedman. Jewish American Filmmakers. 2nd ed. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 2004.
Falicov, Tamara. The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film. London: Wallflower,
2007.
Fras, Miguel. En el Ghetto Interno. Clarn 12 October 2006. <http://www.clarin.
com/diario/2006/10/12/espectaculos/c-00801.htm>.
Goldman, Ilene. To Be(come) Jewish and Argentine: Cinematic Views of a Changing
Nation. Estudios interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe (1999). <http://
www1.tau.ac.il/eail.old/X_2/goldman.html>.
Hamburger, Cao, dir. O ano em que meus pais saram de frias [The Year my Parents went on
Vacation]. Gullane Films, 2006.
Kushigian, Julia A. Reconstructing Childhood: Strategies of Reading Culture and Gender in Spanish
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American Bildungsroman. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2003.

Lesser, Jeffrey, and Ranaan Rein, eds. New Approaches to Race and Ethnicity and Diaspora
in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans. Ed. Jeffrey
Lesser and Raanan Rein. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
Lichtmann, Gabriel, dir. Judos en el Espacio [Jews in Space]. Primer Piano, 2006.
Moya, Jos C. What is in a Stereotype? The Case of Jewish Argentine Anarchists. Rethinking
Jewish-Latin Americans. Ed. Jeffrey Lesser and Raanan Rein. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 2008.
Rein, Raanan. Argentine Jews and the Accusation of Dual Loyalty, 19601962. The
Jewish Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean: Fragments of Memory. Ed. Kristin
Ruggiero. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005.
Rocha, Carolina. The Many Faces of Buenos Aires: Migrants, Immigrants and Foreigners
in Contemporary Argentine Cinema (19962008). Images and Visual Communication:
Urban Representations in Latin America. Ed. Denize Araujo and David W. Foster. Porto
Alegre: Ed. Plus, 2008.
Tal, Tzvi. Migracin y memoria; la reconstruccin de la identidad de judos y palestinos
en pelculas recientes de Chile y Argentina. Arabes y judos en Iberoamerica. Ed. Ranaan
Rein. Sevilla: Fundacin Tres Culturas del Mediterrneo, 2008.
Winograd, Ariel, dir. Cara de queso: Mi primer ghetto [Cheese Head: My First Ghetto].
Haddock Films, 2007.

Carolina Rocha is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville. In 2007 she attended the National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar,
Jewish Buenos Aires. She has published several articles on contemporary Argentine
cinema. She is currently preparing a monograph on representations of masculinity in
Argentine cinema. Address: Peck Hall, 1432 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL,
62026, USA. [email: [email protected]]