Oma and Bella are two warm and feisty octogenarians who live together in Berlin. Oma was originally from Poland and Bella from Lithuania and they both ended up in Berlin separately where they met each after the end of the World War 2 which had annihilated their entire families. They were as Oma said ‘displaced persons without so much as a photograph of their parents’.
Lifelong friends, Bella moved into Oma’s cramped apartment in 2007 to help her recover after a hip-operation and she never left. Their passion is cooking … although stubborn Bella will only eat the Eastern European dishes that she had watched her mother make …. and in fact the whole initial raison d’être behind this enchanting documentary of this two lovable old women was to record the creation of a cookbook they had been encouraged to produce. Hence there are some glorious scenes as they squeeze into their small kitchen chopping, peeling, baking, soaking and meticulously shaving pigs trotters and chicken breasts with a lot of oohing and aahing. At one point they open the oven to see some delicious roasted dish and Bella sighs ‘have you ever seen anything so beautiful?’
In other scenes they are sitting in their armchairs wearing their sunday best with high helmets of lacquered hair talking about their lives. Whilst its hard for them to even talk about how they, and their old friends, survived the Holocaust, they are keen to extoll what a wonderful full life they have had ever since they moved to Germany. ‘We had been robbed of our youth, so we partied like mad to make up for it’. And its clear from the way their faces light up, that their on-going remarkable friendship will ensure that they will always be gloriously happy. Bella in particular has this mischievous way of pulling faces at the camera when Oma goes rambles on, or when she is asked her opinion of her clothes …. ‘just don’t wear anything that you have had for 50 years’ she jokes.
The filmmaker is Oma’s 28 year old granddaughter Alexa Karolinski, a fact that helps the elderly ladies occasionally reveal some of their memories of the atrocities, but it is also a hinderance as she is too close to her subjects to edit the piece coherently. These are obviously two endearing and totally captivating unique women, and occasionally that was lost as the movie drifted a little too aimlessly.
Asides from that one tiny beef (!) I truly loved these delightful women and am really pleased I got to witness this small glimpse of their lives.
P.S. The movie is available on Amazon & Itunes On Demand.
★★★★★★★★
Labels: biography, documentary, German
