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Review

This remarkable first feature from director Gil Kofman tells the tale of an aimless young man whose search for identity and meaning leads him to an obsession with survivors of the Holocaust. Mark Webber delivers a powerful and intense portrayal of Lukas, a hapless toll booth operator who spends his free time voyeuristically spying on the traffic at the toll plaza. He is in stasis, awaiting his destiny when one day, a passenger carelessly tosses him a copy of “Mein Kampf.” He begins to devour it, but his course is suddenly altered when, the very next day, a Holocaust survivor sees the book and berates him. He instantly recognizes that the man’s suffering has defined him, and he embarks on an increasingly bizarre and troubling quest to recreate himself in the image of a survivor. Along the way, he befriends a young Jewish woman, Mira (Rachel Miner), whose father (Jerry Adler) is himself a survivor. Adler offers up a fantastic performance as Mr. Zweig, a man who has buried his past and is vociferously opposed to reopening it. Kofman unwinds this unsettling narrative with an adept hand, dotting the film with refreshing wisps of humor in the midst of his lead character’s gradual descent into psychosis.

 -- Eric Moore