Los Angeles based director, Hava Volterra, tries to come to terms with her father's death by traveling to Italy, the land of his birth, to trace the roots of his family tree. With the help of her feisty 82 year old aunt, her father's sister, she travels relentlessly from city to city, digging through ancient manuscripts and interviewing a wide range of quirky scholars, to piece together the fascinating and humorous stories of her Italian Jewish ancestors. As Hava continues her journey, her aunt begins to come to terms with her own past, and plans a trip to find and thank the family who did her and Hava's father during WWII. Using both Monty Python-style animation and CGI enhanced marionettes, along with music from Glden Globe nominated composer Carlo Siliotto, the film tells the story of Jewish mystics, money lenders, scientists and politicians, while reflecting on how our parents and their roots affect our sense of belonging, identity, and self-worth. Both utterly hilarious and emotionally gripping, The Tree of Life is a fresh look at history in the most immediate of ways.
Festivals
- Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, Canada, 2009
- Museum of Fine Arts Houston, USA, 2009
- Temple Beth Torah, Brooklyn, USA, 2009
- Italian Cultural Institute, Washington, 2009
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"Hava Volterra, an electronics engineer by training, says at the beginning of "The Tree of Life," her highly entertaining documentary about her family’s Italian past, that she started the film project because she wanted to know her father better. An Israeli mathematics professor, he had come to Israel from Italy with his sister soon after World War II, when he was a very young man. Although Volterra doesn’t say so directly, the viewer infers quickly that father and daughter were not on good terms, and that she left Israel as a very young woman to move to Los Angeles and returned only for his funeral. Inviting her aunt, a kibbutznik and photographer, to accompany her, Volterra heads off to Italy to visit Ancona and the house where her father and aunt grew up."
"Even with its many unanswered questions — or perhaps because of them — "The Tree of Life" is a rewarding film experience. It opens at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village on Sept.12."
For the entire review by Miriam Rinn/NJ Jewish Standard Review, check:
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4725/1/Documentary-%91a-rewarding-film-experience%92
"Hava Volterra set out to research her father's family tree and make a documentary. The result is THE TREE OF LIFE, a remarkable 76-minute film of great beauty and substance."
For the entire review by Susan Zuccotti/Forward, check:http://www.forward.com/articles/14087(Susan Zuccotti is the author of the books “The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival” (University of Nebraska Press, 1996) and “Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy” (Yale University Press, 2000).
" the project is clearly Volterra’s way of reconciling herself to her father's death. In an age of embarrassing and unedifying frankness about family matters, her reticence is refreshing. You can read all you need to know from what is there on the screen and for that alone, “The Tree of Life” is a refreshing and fascinating change of pace."
For the entire review by George Robinson/The Jewish Week, check:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c344_a13399/The_Arts/Film.html"Throbbing with midlife crisis after a brush with cancer, Los Angeles–based electronics engineer Hava Volterra journeys to Italy in search of deep background about her late father, a physicist. In Israel, where she grew up, in the ghettos of Venice, and in the town of Volterra that gave her family its name, she digs up a pretty interesting family tree and a truly fascinating history of Italian-Jewish life from the 15th century through the Holocaust, enhanced by interviews with historians in Italy and Israel and some nifty animation and marionette puppetry."
For the entire review by Ella Taylor/Village Voice, check: http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-09-10/film/the-tree-of-life/