Misha and the Wolves
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Docu about Holocaust survivor's book reveals a secret.
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Misha and the Wolves
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Based on 1 parent review
I think it’s a non violent
What's the Story?
In MISHA AND THE WOLVES, Misha Defonseca, now in her 90s, tells the story at her Massachusetts synagogue of surviving the Holocaust as a small girl in Belgium after the Nazis invaded her country in 1940. Her Jewish parents were deported and never seen again. Misha, 7, was adopted by a Catholic family and given a new name, but she felt unloved and missed her parents, so she went marching through the woods alone for thousands of miles in the cold from Belgium to Germany in search of them. Along the way, she is befriended and cared for by a wolf pack. Jane Daniel, a struggling publisher, hears the story and, sensing a blockbuster book, urges Misha to write the story that ultimately snags the attention of Oprah Winfrey and Disney. As dollar signs dance in their heads, the relationship between Jane and Misha deteriorates, and Misha sues for millions. Jane loses and, to save herself from ruin, is prompted to look more deeply into Misha's story. In the meantime, under another publisher, the book becomes a bestseller in Europe, where Misha becomes a celebrated talk show guest regularly seen in tears as she recounts her painful memories. Jane recruits genealogists in the U.S. and Belgium to dig into Misha's story. Old birth, school, church, and phone records miraculously are found as the researchers and a reporter discover another, even more bizarre story than that of a girl and her wolf family.
Is It Any Good?
Unlike the dry recitation of facts that characterizes many documentaries, Misha and the Wolves is a lively, surprising film bursting with all the qualities that make great feature films great. All too often the trouble with a movie is that there's no one to root for, but this film offers one sympathetic character after another, and then snatches them away from us in a skillful cinematic magic act. The more information we receive, the more we are asked to alter our notions of who exactly is a hero and who is a villain, leaving us shocked and with a strange empathy for all.
Director Sam Hobkinson begins with a taut and riveting premise and then turns this well-made documentary into a kind of police procedural, with brilliant genealogist detectives combing Europe to find the truth, if a truth can be found. The movie is filled with unexpected twists that twist in on themselves. This is in many ways a tragic story of loss and an odd story of publicity-seeking as self-administered medicine for a broken spirit. Not to in any way make light of the experiences of survivors of any war, it's reasonable to suggest that alongside this film's central tragedy runs a uniquely near-comic narrative of titanic gall and almost criminal audacity wrapped around greed and exploitation. Hats off to director-writer Hobkinson for taking exactly the right tone throughout.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what war does to kids. How do you think kids cope with losses and conditions they don't understand after the devastation of war?
How does Misha's story both exploit our sympathies and also add to our understanding of the devastation of war?
Who are your sympathies with at the end of the film? Why?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: August 11, 2021
- Director: Sam Hobkinson
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Documentary
- Run time: 90 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13
- MPAA explanation: some thematic elements and unsettling images
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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