This film about Misha Defonseca, author of a ‘memoir’ about escaping the Nazis and sheltering with wolves as a child, is propulsively watchable
“Sometimes a story is so astonishing it’s unbelievable.” So said a Massachusetts radio presenter in the 90s, introducing Misha Defonseca, a local Jewish woman originally from Belgium. As a child in the war, Defonseca walked hundreds of miles across Nazi-occupied Germany to find her parents. She was one of Belgium’s “hidden children”, taken in by a Catholic family, her identity erased. In her internationally bestselling memoir she described how, cold and hungry, she was sheltered by a pack of wolves. Disney wanted to turn it into a film. Oprah Winfrey’s book club was interested.
The thing is: Defonseca was a fake. Never mind a pack of wolves, her whole memoir was a pack of lies; a hoax Holocaust narrative. This documentary assembles the story like a thriller,...
“Sometimes a story is so astonishing it’s unbelievable.” So said a Massachusetts radio presenter in the 90s, introducing Misha Defonseca, a local Jewish woman originally from Belgium. As a child in the war, Defonseca walked hundreds of miles across Nazi-occupied Germany to find her parents. She was one of Belgium’s “hidden children”, taken in by a Catholic family, her identity erased. In her internationally bestselling memoir she described how, cold and hungry, she was sheltered by a pack of wolves. Disney wanted to turn it into a film. Oprah Winfrey’s book club was interested.
The thing is: Defonseca was a fake. Never mind a pack of wolves, her whole memoir was a pack of lies; a hoax Holocaust narrative. This documentary assembles the story like a thriller,...
- 9/2/2021
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
"They were engaged and absolutely enthralled by this story," says one contributor to Sam Hobkinson's documentary - and there is a solid chance you will be too, particularly if you come to this with no knowledge of the book Misha: a Mémoire Of The Holocaust Years. So, if you want to remain entirely spoiler free before watching, may I encourage you not to read on at this time, as to talk about this film in any sort of detail requires at least a little revelation.
"Engaging and enthralling" is certainly one way of putting it and one can only imagine what it must have been like sitting in a Massachusetts synagogue on Holocaust Remembrance Day only to have a member of the congregation open her heart about her childhood experiences. Belgian Misha Defonseca told the attendees - in a story that would go on to grow and develop and be published.
"Engaging and enthralling" is certainly one way of putting it and one can only imagine what it must have been like sitting in a Massachusetts synagogue on Holocaust Remembrance Day only to have a member of the congregation open her heart about her childhood experiences. Belgian Misha Defonseca told the attendees - in a story that would go on to grow and develop and be published.
- 9/1/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Photo: ‘Misha and the Wolves’ Living Amongst The Wolves Recently added to Netflix is an incredibly engaging BBC documentary ‘Misha and the Wolves’. The film centers around Misha Defonseca, author of the best-selling book ‘Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years’ in which she details her survival of the Holocaust, her search for her parents, and her experiences living with wolves as she hid from Nazi forces. After a fallout with her publisher, disparities and inconsistencies in her story arise resulting in questions of the legitimacy of her life story. ‘Misha and the Wolves’ is an excellent documentary that begins as one thing and ends as very much another. There is a lot to unpack in the film in terms of human elements and the consequences of decision-making and deceit that spurs much thought even if the film does not always delve into it itself. Expertly crafted and beautiful to look at,...
- 8/19/2021
- by Sean Aversa
- Hollywood Insider - Substance & Meaningful Entertainment
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching, why it’s worth checking out, and where you can stream it.) The Movie: Misha and the Wolves Where You Can Stream It: Netflix The Pitch: A Belgian immigrant named Misha Defonseca tells her harrowing story: when she was a child […]
The post The Daily Stream: Nothing is As It Seems in the Documentary ‘Misha and the Wolves’ appeared first on /Film.
The post The Daily Stream: Nothing is As It Seems in the Documentary ‘Misha and the Wolves’ appeared first on /Film.
- 8/11/2021
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
In a twisty new documentary, a Holocaust survivor’s staggering story turns into a cautionary tale of secrets and lies
At the Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, congregant Misha Defonseca bared her soul on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1989, or perhaps 1990. As is the case with most aspects of the episode she’d set in motion on that January morning, the particulars are murky.
Related: ‘It was just such a maze’: the twisty story behind Enemies of the State...
At the Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, congregant Misha Defonseca bared her soul on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1989, or perhaps 1990. As is the case with most aspects of the episode she’d set in motion on that January morning, the particulars are murky.
Related: ‘It was just such a maze’: the twisty story behind Enemies of the State...
- 8/11/2021
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
When The Imposter premiered at Sundance back in January 2012, it set a new benchmark for narrative documentaries, especially those with a mysterious or investigative angle. The story’s brazen absurdity did much of the work fordirector Bart Layton, but he packaged it into a narrative that remains taut, artfuland painfully suspenseful. So, how does Misha and the Wolves compare to this seminal documentary?
Well, it’s a very curious story. The ‘Misha’ in the title refers to Misha Defonseca, a US-based Belgian writer who published Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, which recounted how she, as a seven-year-old Jewish girl, survived the Holocaust after searching for her parents across Belgium, Germany and Poland. At some point during this vast journey, Misha was adopted by a roving pack of wolves that provided ample leftovers for the diminutive child, who managed to fatally stab a German soldier ‘twice her size’.
Sounds far-fetched,...
Well, it’s a very curious story. The ‘Misha’ in the title refers to Misha Defonseca, a US-based Belgian writer who published Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, which recounted how she, as a seven-year-old Jewish girl, survived the Holocaust after searching for her parents across Belgium, Germany and Poland. At some point during this vast journey, Misha was adopted by a roving pack of wolves that provided ample leftovers for the diminutive child, who managed to fatally stab a German soldier ‘twice her size’.
Sounds far-fetched,...
- 7/29/2021
- by Jack Hawkins
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Netflix acquired global streaming rights prior to festival, and will debut exclusively in North America, other markets.
London-based MetFilm Sales has closed a raft of territory deals on Misha And The Wolves following its world premiere at Sundance on Sunday (January 31).
Netflix acquired global streaming rights prior to the festival, and will debut the film exclusively in North America and other markets.
’Misha And The Wolves’: Sundance Review
MetFilm Sales has licensed rights for the UK (BBC Storyville), Germany and France (Zdf Arte), Spain (Movistar+), Netherlands (Vpro), Sweden (Svt), Denmark (Dr), Norway (Nrk), Finland (Yle), Iceland (Ruv), Belgium (Vrt...
London-based MetFilm Sales has closed a raft of territory deals on Misha And The Wolves following its world premiere at Sundance on Sunday (January 31).
Netflix acquired global streaming rights prior to the festival, and will debut the film exclusively in North America and other markets.
’Misha And The Wolves’: Sundance Review
MetFilm Sales has licensed rights for the UK (BBC Storyville), Germany and France (Zdf Arte), Spain (Movistar+), Netherlands (Vpro), Sweden (Svt), Denmark (Dr), Norway (Nrk), Finland (Yle), Iceland (Ruv), Belgium (Vrt...
- 2/1/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Ever since “Man on Wire,” in 2008, more and more documentaries have been using visualizations, staged scenes, and other illustrative methods that are meant to bring a true story to life but, to my mind, often end up getting in the way of it. I tend to prefer my documentaries without a speck of cereal, and that made the early sections of “Misha and the Wolves” seem a bit of a challenge. The film employs a great deal of obvious staging to chronicle the life of Misha Defonseca, a Belgian Holocaust survivor with a singular past, one so remarkable that it became both a bestselling book and a movie.
In the early ’90s, while living in the small town of Millis, Massachusetts, Defonseca began to talk, first to friends and neighbors and then to the congregation of Temple Bel Torah, about what happened to her when she was a child during World War II.
In the early ’90s, while living in the small town of Millis, Massachusetts, Defonseca began to talk, first to friends and neighbors and then to the congregation of Temple Bel Torah, about what happened to her when she was a child during World War II.
- 1/31/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
In the early 1990s, an unassuming Belgian immigrant named Misha Defonseca went up to the bima of her Holliston, Ma temple on Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — and told an incredible story that no one in the congregation had ever heard before. Trembling but defiant, Defonseca revealed that she was a survivor, herself. She said that she had been separated from her parents at seven years old and placed in the care of a Catholic family who might be able to keep her safe from the Nazis; she said they rechristened her “Monique,” a life-saving deception that nevertheless severed the young girl from her nascent sense of self just when she was first coming to understand what it meant to have one. She couldn’t even remember her own last name. And so Defonseca, armed with nothing but a pocket knife and a child’s naiveté, stole away in the...
- 1/31/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“Misha checked every box for the type of woman we seek to interview,” states a radio host with a pleasingly mellifluous voice at the start of Misha and the Wolves, a twisty documentary that made its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. “Sometimes a story is so astonishing,” the host adds, that “it feels unbelievable.” Indeed, the story of Misha Defonseca checks a number of boxes on the documentary checklist. Serious surprises? Juicy legal proceedings? Jaw-dropping historical details? Check, check, check. And there is one more box to check: Stories that were too good to be true.
That is not exactly a spoiler; there is no hiding the knowledge that all in Misha and the Wolves is not what it seems. Even the film’s Sundance description makes no attempt at subterfuge: “Author Misha Defonseca’s memoir took the world by storm, but fallout with her publisher-turned-detective exposes the...
That is not exactly a spoiler; there is no hiding the knowledge that all in Misha and the Wolves is not what it seems. Even the film’s Sundance description makes no attempt at subterfuge: “Author Misha Defonseca’s memoir took the world by storm, but fallout with her publisher-turned-detective exposes the...
- 1/31/2021
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
The gripping Sundance documentary Misha and the Wolves, premiering at the festival today, possesses a fairy tale-like quality, beginning with its title. Those four words evoke ancient stories of children deep in the woods, threatened by menacing animals, as in Little Red Riding Hood.
The similarities go further. The documentary tells the story of Misha Defonseca, a woman living inMassachusetts who purported to be a Holocaust survivor. She told neighbors a remarkable tale of growing up a young Jewish girl in Belgium during the war, saying she was secreted with a Catholic family after her parents were deported. She said her foster parents hated her.
Desperate to reunite with her mother and father, she told of setting out on foot for Germany, with little more than a compass and a knife, keeping to the woods. On her way she encountered a female wolf,...
The similarities go further. The documentary tells the story of Misha Defonseca, a woman living inMassachusetts who purported to be a Holocaust survivor. She told neighbors a remarkable tale of growing up a young Jewish girl in Belgium during the war, saying she was secreted with a Catholic family after her parents were deported. She said her foster parents hated her.
Desperate to reunite with her mother and father, she told of setting out on foot for Germany, with little more than a compass and a knife, keeping to the woods. On her way she encountered a female wolf,...
- 1/31/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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