MISHA AND THE WOLVES
★★★★
OUT 3 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC / 89 MINS
DIRECTOR Sam Hobkinson
PARTICIPANTS Jane Daniel, Pat Cunningham, Evelyne Haendel
If an elderly survivor of the Holocaust told you, in granular detail, the circumstances of her childhood journey across Nazi-occupied Europe, would you ask for proof? That’s the ethical conflict at the centre of Sam Hobkinson’s riveting documentary, which reexamines the shocking events that led to the truth behind Misha Defonseca and her bestselling 1997 memoir being exposed. A mix of talking heads, reconstructions and archive footage help to paint a riveting portrait of this infamous literary hoax, a yarn first spun in smalltown America and unravelled in a jawdropping investigation that leads back to Belgium with the help of some intriguing and empathetic players. Even with a few gaps in the narrative, this unbelievable tale is not to be missed.