Adam, memories of a war

Plot

The film - set in Israel in 1961 - presents the story of Adam Stein, a charismatic patient of a fictional psychiatric asylum for Holocaust survivors.

Before the war, in the Berlin of the twenties, Adam Stein was an artist - musician, cabaret entrepreneur, circus owner - loved by the public and the Nazis alike. ¹ Before the advent of the Third Reich, he was locked up in a concentration camp , and separated from his family. The sadistic field boss (Willen Dafoe) forces him to act like his dog (literally) as revenge for a joke inflicted on him by the clown, years before, at the dawn of Nazism, when Commander Klein was a ” public”. ³ Stein becomes the commander’s dog, entertaining him while his wife and daughter are sent to die. ¹ Stein manages to survive by reaching an agreement with Commander Klein: his life in exchange for entertaining the Jewish prisoners before their imminent entrance into the gas chambers and crematory ovens. After the war, Adam enters an asylum in the desert of Israel. ⁴

In the psychiatric center, the story is loaded with symbolic, mythical and psychological components. Adam is a special patient, has the gift of guessing the pains of the rest of the boarding schools. Just touching them suffers a wound in their own body that then extinguishes itself. This confuses his doctors, led by Dr. Nathan Gross. ⁵

One day, Adam smells something, hears a sound. “Who brought a dog here?” He asks Dr. Gross. He denies that there is a dog, but Adam finds it: it is a child raised in a basement tied to a chain. Adam and the child see each other and recognize each other as dogs. Resurrected Adam is the story of a man who was once a dog, who knows a dog that was once a child. ¹

Production

It was filmed between April 16 and June 14, 2007. ¹

Release

The film was screened at several film festivals, like American Film Institute (AFI), Seminci (in Valladolid ), Telluride , Toronto , Mill Valley , Film Festival Haifa , the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Festival of Jewish Film London .

In the United States it was released on December 12, 2008, and in Germany on January 22, 2009.

Cast

• Jeff Goldblum (1952-) as Adam Stein.
• Willem Dafoe (1955-) as Commander Klein.
• Derek Jacobi (London, 1938-) as Dr. Nathan Gross
• Ayelet Zurer (Tel Aviv, 1969-) as Gina Gray.
• Hana Laszlo (1953-) as Rachel Shwester.
• Moritz Bleibtreu ( Munich , 1971-) as Joseph Gracci.
• Veronica Ferres ( Solingen , 1965-) as Frau Fogel.
• Juliane Köhler ( Göttingen , 1965-) as Ruth Edelson.
• Joachim Krol ( Herne , 1957-) as Abe Wolfowitz.
• Jenya Dodina or Evgenia Dodina ( Mogilev , 1964), as Gretchen Stein.
• Tudor Rapiteanu as David.
• Idan Alterman as Arthur.
• Dror Keren as Dr. Uri Slonim
• Shmuel Edelman as Dr. Shapiro.
• Yoram Toledano as Tarshish.
• Mickey Leon as Golomb.
• Benjamin Jagendorf as Rabbi Lichtenstein.
• Theodor Danetti as Blum.
• Gabriel Spahiu as Taub.
• Luana Stoica as Zelda.
• Coca Bloos as Ms. Lipowitz
• Ioana Abur as the woman with the doll.
• Ozana Oancea as a nurse in high school.
• Maria Chiran as a woman with the cape.
• Ana Benea as Pinkie.
• Cristian Motiu as Volk.
• George Remes as a Nazi at the crematorium.
• Constantin Florescu as a Nazi soldier on the train.
• Ion Arcudeanu as Heinz.
• Mohamad as an old Bedouin.
• Moti Rozentsvaig as an Israeli child 1 in Haifa.
• Ilan Aviv as an Israeli child 2 in Haifa.
• Berivan Laura Haj Abdo as Ruth Stein at age 19.
• Ana Geoanna as Ruth Stein at age 11.
• Amina Abu Shanab as Ruth Stein at age 5.
• Hanelore Bauer as Lotte Stein at age 8.
• Mihaela Denisa Mallat as Lotte Stein at age 2.
• Cristina Anghel as Naomi Wolfowitz.
• Ehud Bleiberg as a relative of David.

Notes