Adapted from Second Generation, an autobiographical graphic novel (perhaps the genre should be termed “autobiographic novel”?) by Michel Kichka, this animated feature explores the legacy of the Holocaust from a somewhat sideways angle. Kichka’s father Henri was a survivor of Auschwitz, but when the story starts in the late 1950s-early 1960s, Henri is a tamped-down, closed-off character who keeps the office, like his memories, locked up and unshared with his five children. In a pastel-coloured Belgian town, Michel is first met as an adolescent, voiced by Ilan Galkoff although narration by the older Michel (David Baddiel) comments on the action throughout. Barely aware of what happened during the war except that it was something bad dad doesn’t talk about, Michel and younger brother Charley (Skye Bennett) go to synagogue with their family but don’t much think about their Jewish identity except when it gets the young boys out of religious education classes.
However, when the 1960 trial of Adolf Eichmann is televised and becomes essential viewing for all the Jewish families in the neighbourhood, Michel and Charley start to take more interest in their father’s story. Somewhat confusingly, he refuses to talk about it with his kids because it is too painful, but out of a sense of duty he becomes a noted speaker on the subject of the Holocaust, appearing on television and guiding visitors around the camps. Meanwhile, Michel becomes more aware of subtle and overt acts of antisemitism all around him, from the teasing of schoolmates to a girlfriend’s father who throws cold water on him when he comes a-courting specifically because he’s Jewish.
With its 12 certificate and very simplified graphic style, this feels like it’s intended partly as a pedagogic instrument for kids the same age as those in the film, and inspiration for Holocaust 101 discussions. But it’s still also a story about specific people with their particular family dynamics and unique sufferings, so be prepared for a tragic turn of events towards the end, one that has nothing to do with the larger tragedy that is the Holocaust. It may upset younger viewers but it also makes this film a bit more interesting than the usual baby-boomer-generation, young-Jewish-guy’s coming-of-age story that it looks like on the surface.
• My Father’s Secrets is released on 27 November on digital platforms.
