Of course, I have seen a lot of films over my life. Some were great, some good, some alright, some meh, and some I walked out of, or turned off. A great movie is generally the same as a good movie, only better. But – now and then – you see a film that is not only, but different. Unique.

The film that fits that category that I had most recently seen was Emilia Perez, which may win the Best Picture Oscar this year. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of the vicious chefe of a vicious Mexican cartel, who has – for his entire life – felt he was a woman and finally decided to get a sex change operation. So he disappears, abandoning his wife and children, only to later return as a woman who is not recognized as the man he used to be, even to his intimate family. In her new identity, Emilia also takes on not only a new personality, but a new inner person, becoming as charitable as she previously had been vicious. And all goes well, until it doesn’t. And then it really doesn’t. And, by the way……..it’s a musical. This was one original film.

Last night, quite unexpectedly, we saw another film that fit’s the “wow” category. We went to our neighborhood theater, the Avalon, last night for its monthly Israeli film night. The showing was a documentary, with the double entendre name of The Return from the Other Planet (you will see why it’s a double entendre in a minute). The focus was on a man born Yechiel Feiner, who “gave up” his name and his history during two years in Auschwitz, and who was one of the first, if not THE first, person who wrote about the Holocaust under the name Ka. Tzetnik. And the books he wrote, especially “The House of Dolls”, were best sellers, and absolutely raw and horrific.

But Ka. Tzetnik was the name of a survivor and writer; in his day to day life, he had a third name, Yechiel De-Nur. And, as millions read the books of Ka. Tzetnik, none of those people identified him with his mild mannered Clark Kent identity as De-Nur.

According to a number of personality experts, De-Nur and Ka. Tzetnik were two personalities in one individual, a form of split personality. Ka. Tzetnik was not a simple pseudonym.

At the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, De-Nur was called as a witness. After first being unwilling to testify (in part because it would, for the first time, show that De-Nur and Ka. Tzetnik were the same person), he agreed and, during his testimony (part of which you see in the film) about how he (the Ka. Tzetnik “he”) felt that Auschwitz was “a different planet” where normal human rules do not apply and where he began slowly to describe what he saw there, he was interrupted by the chief judge asking him to speed things up and telling him (De-Nur in this case) that he had some specific questions. At this, De-Nur/Ka. Tzetnik, collapsed. He had a stroke, and was apparently paralyzed for about three months.

He recovered, felt extraordinarily embarrassed, and found his life more and more troubling. His wife convinced him to go to The Netherlands for experimental LSD treatment (read that as a sort of hypnotic treatment under LSD), which was tough, but apparently successful, and he came out of the therapy a different person.

No longer did he believe that Auschwitz was a different planet with different rules. He changed his mind completely, deciding that the Germans did not create Auschwitz, humanity did. That any person, any group of persons, could have created an Auschwitz. That the torturers and the victims could have been reversed. And he wrote a new book, Code, to explain what he had learned and how he had changed, and was interviewed on Israeli TV for the very first time. He lived to be 91.

So, that’s the story. That does not explain why the film, a combination of vintage films, interviews with his wife and with a few people who knew him, as well as experts in personality studies, was so successful. This has to be credited to Assaf Lapid, who was making his debut as a director and had been working on this film for, he said last night at the Avalon, 12 years. And to the composer of the music which accompanied the film and set the perfect atmosphere for the story line. Because Ka. Tzetnik is not now a familiar name,   his story is not a familiar story. So, you really don’t know where the film is going. Auschwitz, Eichmann, other planet, double personality, LSD, reversal. You are drawn in during the very first scene, and you are kept in, intrigued and wondering how this story is so unknown.

The film has won a number of awards already. Apparently, it is having trouble being included in film festivals, particularly in Europe, because producers are afraid to show Israeli films right now. But my guess is you will be able to see it. So keep your eyes open.

As to Ka. Tzetnik’s books, I have read none of them. We do, in our collection, have a copy of “Phoenix Over the Galilee”, published in 1969, and signed by the author. Quite rare, I believe. He didn’t sign very many.