A documentary that arrived just in time
Yesterday me along with the rest of my class were granted the opportunity to visit the world premiere of the Croatian documentary film Eva Fischer: From Daruvar to Rome (Eva Fischer: Od Daruvara do RIma) in the Daruvar public cinema. I hadn't been a guest on a documentary premiere ever since To Battle (U Boj) so as a fan of history and documentaries this was a very impactful event for me. As today is world Holocaust day, I thought what better day to publish a review than now.
Who is Eva Fischer?
For my uninitiated readers, Eva Fischer (1920-2018) is a Europe renowned painter of Jewish heritage born in Daruvar, a town in Croatia where I attend high school. He father was the last rabbi of the town and would be executed in Beograd, Serbia, during the German bombing raid of the city in 1941. Throught her life she traveled across Europe, after escaping the war ridden Balkan penninsula she settled in Italy where she would spend most of her adult life. She worked and traveled with various big names in art circles (Dali, Picasso and Chagal in particular), as well as painting the stained glass windows in the Jewish museum in Rome which stand there to this day. Her paintings are reagarded as visula poetry and had earned it's place in global art history. Now they have a pernament home in the museum of the Daruvar area, as they were gifted there by her son Alan David Baumann.
As per the film itself...
It's a very talky documentary without any reenactments or visually interesting elements. Luckily I'm not opposed to this as this isn't a BBC or History Channel production with a budget big enough to afford all of that. It's just a simple fun passion project telling the story of a man who wants to find out more about his mother and bring her fame back home. Some scenes geniuenly made me tear up, but I tend to do that when discussing real tragic events. Overall this ins't a very thrilling or exciting watch, but I still felt a geniuine connection to it and would love to see more things like this, as Croatians rival the British when it comes to documentaries.
Do I reccomend it?
Actually I do. Whilst it's mostly talky and I'm sure a lot of people would find it tedious if you're interested in art history or just want to see something great about Croatia's impact to European culture then I highley reccomend checking this touching emotional tale out.
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