My Father’s Secrets – Film Review

Original title: Les secrets de mon père

Director – Véra Belmont
Writers – Véra Belmont, Michel Kichka, Valérie Zenatti
Stars – Elliott Gould, Miriam Margolyes, Tracy-Ann Oberman and David Baddiel

This is an adaptation of Michel Kichka’s autobiographical graphic novel Second Generation. The story starts in 1959 in Belgium, where we meet Michel (voiced by Ilan Galkoff) as a teenager along with his younger brother Charley (Skye Bennett). They are being chased by a group of other teenagers because they are Jewish. They escape by jumping onto a moving truck and hiding in the back but are caught by the police! This one incident shows that they are outsiders, constantly having to fight their corner.

The two boys are inseparable and are fascinated by what their father gets up to in his study. They know he has a secret but have no idea what it is. Slowly, they learn that their father Henri is an Auschwitz survivor, and although the name means nothing to them, they start to learn the implications of this fact.

The story is told by a narrator, who is Michel as an older man and voiced by David Baddiel. The family goes through a number of personal tragedies which colour what Michel thinks of his father. Henri decides that telling the story of his time in Auschwitz is his life’s work, and does so at the expense of his relationship with his kids. The father and son have a complicated relationship that slowly changes as Michel becomes an adult. The animation style is relatively simple when compared to many of the modern releases and the work is clearly aimed at a younger audience. If you’re looking to educate some younger teenagers on this difficult topic it may be a good place to start.  It puts a human face and some humour on the horrific story of the Second World War and the Holocaust.