Review: Misha and the Wolves (2021)

4 Responses to Review: Misha and the Wolves (2021)

1. Clary says:

   August 14, 2021 at 2:46 pm

   Hi Sheila!
   Spoilers ahead, of course.
   So. Very good film, with lots of suspense, I really enjoyedit.
   Then at night the questions began: what with the husband? did he know the truth and just let it go? why nobody seems to wonder what happened to her immediately after the war? It’s a lot of years till she appears in Massachussetts. Why the school director never accompanied her to her family house in Belgium, just to conferences, even when Misha was staying at her house?
   There are several real stories with a similar subject, but the questions are why did they do it, was it some fantastic idea and then it was a snowball from there, every time you tell the story you embellish it? was it all a dark conspiration? were the emotional and/or economical benefits bigger than the risk to be exposed?
   I just read a book by Javier Cercas called The Impostor, which deals exactly with that subject. After the Civil war in Spain a simple man, Eric Marco, took the opportunity to go to work to Germany, was caught in a petty dismeneur, was in jail for some time, then returned to Madrid, got married and slowly began to climb the sindicalist braid to be General Secretary, became a representant of Holocaust survivors association, got medals, etc. and after a researcher found him to be a lier. But this book not just tells the story, it also is the story of why he did it. Or at least, the many possibilities of why he did it, since Eric Marco never agrees to be interviewed.
   Anyway, it seems always there’ll be impostors, as well as believers. White people passing as black (history professor Jessica Krug), Holocaust survivors who invented their stories, Princess Anastasia, I just found there’s even a list of impostors on wikipaedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_impostors but the common sense of failure on those who believe is too big. It has also repercussions on that branch of History which deals with memoirs, since how are we going to believe all of them? Too sad.

   Reply
   • sheila says:

     August 17, 2021 at 11:02 am

     Clary – love this response! So much to discuss!!

     // what with the husband? did he know the truth and just let it go? why nobody seems to wonder what happened to her immediately after the war? //

     I had the same questions. Like … we never learn how she got OUT of Germany as a child – did she go back to Belgium? Nobody seemed to ask. I haven’t read her book so maybe it’s covered there … but there are so many gaps in her story, which nobody seems to have asked about at the time.

     // were the emotional and/or economical benefits bigger than the risk to be exposed? //

     I know! was it just the “shame” of what had happened to her family? It was similar to what happened with so many European families – she carried it with her all those years? i can’t help but get the feeling that what REALLY interested her was not claiming a Holocaust story for her childhood – but going off into a Wolf Fantasy Land. Her real interest were the wolves. It’s so … odd. If she had written this story as a children’s book – as fiction – there would have been no issues. It’s a great story!

     It seemed at first like Oprah’s interest made her get cold feet. Too much attention? It was fine to get the attention of her small town – a place where nobody’s going to fact-check her. But to bring that story out to millions of people was so risky. And yet – she turned down Oprah – but then accepted all those invites from European groups – and in Europe these kinds of stories are far more immediate – everyone’s family has a story of WWII – it was even MORE risky of her to take her story to Europe! I can’t understand why she did that.

     and I don’t know what you think about this but: there’s that clip near the end of her on a French talk show, with two male hosts – and she’s telling the story of watching a Nazi rape a little girl, and then he was going to rape her and she stabbed him. She was crying. The glimpses of the two men listening to her … I feel like I could see a little bit of doubt there. Just an ECHO of doubt. and yet you don’t want to fact-check her – we’re supposed to believe victims – especially child victims! and many insane stories came out of WWII so … it could be true? But I feel like I saw hesitation on their faces, a little sixth sense that something was not right.

     That book The Impostor sounds incredible!! I am so interested in these stories of fabulists – and why they do what they do. Stephen Glass! Or “Catch Me If You Can”. It’s almost like lying – pretending to be a brain surgeon or whatever – is compulsive. Real life is just not interesting enough for these people. Or people who lie about being war heroes, or even veterans. Stolen valor, they call it.

     // It has also repercussions on that branch of History which deals with memoirs, since how are we going to believe all of them? //

     So true. There was the whole James Frey debacle – and THAT one Oprah did get caught up in. She dodged a bullet with Misha, but then walked right into the bullet with James Frey.

     It’s fascinating – and makes you feel kind of bad. I myself just couldn’t live like that. I’d be so scared of being “found out.”

     Reply
     • Jessie says:

       August 17, 2021 at 9:30 pm

       Her real interest were the wolves. It’s so … odd. If she had written this story as a children’s book – as fiction – there would have been no issues. It’s a great story!
       This is what I was really struck by reading your review! We have talked before about how enthralling wolf stories are when you are a kid — it’s so fascinating that she jammed the one impulse against the other, that she sowed her doom by leaning into what enthralled her, because a wolf story is so compelling and sensational for everyone that it was bound to attract attention.

       Reply
       • sheila says:

         August 18, 2021 at 9:49 pm

         // that she sowed her doom by leaning into what enthralled her, //

         I know, right? It seems like the impulse was irresistible to her – for who knows what reason. The weird thing is – she lived 40, 50 years without ever telling “her story” of the wolves and the Nazis. It was like one day she woke up, decided to pose as Jewish, go to a synogogue and tell her story. I just wonder why … we never really get that answer.

         Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.