Dear Mr Waldman (2006)

In Tel Aviv in the 1960s 10-year-old Hilik knows his goal in life–to make his parents happy and compensate for the grief they both suffered in the Holocaust. The fragile equilibrium of Rivka and Moishe’s new, post-war life begins to waver when Moishe convinces himself that Yankele, his son from his first marriage, didn’t actually die in Auschwitz, but rather survived to become the “Jack Waldman” he sees pictured in a newspaper. When a deluded Moishe writes a letter to Waldman, Hilik takes matters into his own hands.

A coming-of-age story written and directed by the son of survivors, Dear Mr. Waldman beautifully captures the milieu of mid-century Israel and the peculiarities of growing up amid the emotional wreckage of the Holocaust.