‘It will be a movie about bereavement and redemption,” said Avi Nesher, one of Israel’s leading directors, about his upcoming project, a screen adaptation of the book Sons and Soldiers by Bruce Henderson.
Sons and Soldiers tells the amazing true story about a group of young Jewish refugees from Germany and surrounding countries, who made it to the US in the 1930s just before the Nazis closed in.
Because they knew German, they were recruited by the US military and trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland to be translators and interrogators. They were then sent out with every combat unit in Europe to question German POWs as soon as they were captured.
Knowing the German mentality and language, these interrogators were able to rapidly uncover valuable intelligence, which played a decisive role in the US and its allies winning the war in Europe. According to an army report, as much as 60% of all credible intelligence in Europe was gathered by these young men, nicknamed “The Ritchie Boys.”
“The characters are like Clark Kent without superpowers; they’re brainy people, normal people who did tremendous heroic deeds. No one is perfect, but by the time the movie’s over, you will love these people as heroes,” said Nesher, who has always been drawn to unlikely heroes throughout his long and distinguished career.
The Ritchie Boys represent a form of warfare rarely seen on screen
He began making movies in 1978 with the classic The Troupe (Halahaka), about an IDF entertainment troupe, and went on to make dozens of acclaimed Israeli films, as well as spending about a decade making genre movies in Hollywood.
His Israeli movies include Rage and Glory (1984), about a Lehi underground group in the 1940s Jerusalem; Turn Left at the End of the World (2004), a story of Indian and Moroccan immigrants in a Negev town in the 1960s; The Matchmaker (2010), about a boy working for Holocaust survivor; and The Other Story (2018), a look at a complex relationship between a troubled young woman who has just become ultra-Orthodox, and her secular father.
In the last few years, he made two movies that are among his best. The first was Image of Victory, a fact-based drama about the Battle of Nitzanim in the Independence War. It focuses on a group of young kibbutz residents and a Cairo photojournalist embedded with the Egyptian troops.
The Monkey House, a dramedy about a bitter pulp fiction writer who takes extreme measures to try to burnish his reputation, was the second. Image of Victory was released during the COVID pandemic, but nevertheless found an audience around the world on Netflix.
The Monkey House brought in over 100,000 viewers in its first week, but that week happened to be in early October 2023, and its release was cut short after the Hamas-led October 7 massacres.
Nesher was philosophical about the release of The Monkey House getting derailed by the war.
“I didn’t mind that, but I did mind when there was a response abroad that evolved into blaming the victim, when a boycott [of Israeli movies] started that no one would admit to out loud, and before we knew it, antisemitism was back in full swing,” he said.
Remembering the days of the Vietnam War, Nesher said, “Back then, people were attacking the US government, but no one ever seriously suggested that it was an option to break up the country and give it back to the Native Americans.”
He said he was disturbed that “there’s this perception that has taken hold that Jews got this state by colonialism, and it should be dismantled. I can’t remember another situation where a nation’s right to exist was negated.”
While he is no fan of the current Israeli government, he noted: “This government has done its part to help the people who are badmouthing Israel… But now, with antisemitism on the rise around the world, this is much bigger than just an Israeli problem.”
Nesher, a huge film buff, was a movie critic before he began directing. He pointed to how master American director Frank Capra created the iconic Why We Fight documentary series during World War II. “Capra felt that artists are not absolved of the duty to put up a fight.”
He mentions this to explain his decision to take on the Sons and Soldiers adaptation. “The screenplay will be entertaining and also moving and thought-provoking,” he said. “They’re young, and they can be funny and break the rules, but of course there’s tragedy, too.”
Having had the privilege of interviewing two veterans of the Ritchie Boys unit, Fred Howard and Guy Stern, who came to the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2005 to attend screenings of Christian Bauer’s fascinating documentary, The Ritchie Boys, I understood just what Nesher meant. They were two of the funniest, most charming, and engaging storytellers I have ever met.
The Sons and Soldiers project is being produced by Jagman Productions and producer Josh Green, who told Variety, “The book exposes a largely forgotten chapter of World War II history: How Jewish and other refugees who escaped Nazi tyranny became some of the most effective intelligence assets for the Allies, juxtaposing the broader sweep of World War II with intimate, personal, deeply human journeys.
“This story celebrates not just the mostly Jewish, German, and Austrian Ritchie Boys but also all the other unsung heroes and European refugees who risked everything to return to the fight and helped turn the tide of the war,” he continued.
Nesher told Variety that the Ritchie Boys saga “challenges long-standing stereotypes that reduce Jews to figures of manipulation or finance, and instead reveals a history of courage, intelligence, and direct engagement on the battlefield.”
“The Ritchie Boys represent a form of warfare rarely seen on screen, one where language, psychology, and identity are not secondary tools, but decisive forces,” he added. “This film will aspire to bring that dimension forward with clarity and force, to be as immediate and affecting as Saving Private Ryan, while offering a perspective that feels both vital and overdue.”
Nesher, who, at 73, continues to make great movies at a remarkably fast pace, has completed Our Loves, a film set to be released in the fall. When we spoke earlier this week, Nesher reflected on his insights about filmmaking: “Filmmaking has two faces. As a filmmaker, you love cinema, you love film language and structure, but that can be a selfish pursuit.
“Films are also communal; they conduct a dialogue with the public… The Troupe ended with a song of peace, and it was filmed the week that [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat came to Israel.
“Maybe movies don’t change the world, but they can change people’s perceptions; they can change the zeitgeist,” the director said.
Source:
www.jpost.com
