Left Luggage (1998)

Review by All Movie Guide
This 1998 production has a worthy story line: A young woman of the emancipated '70s spurns her Jewish background, but gets caught up in it anyway. Unfortunately, the film resorts to contrivance and melodrama to support the theme of her reconciliation with her identity. The central character is a philosophy student named Chaya Silberschmidt (Laura Fraser), the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She is thoughtful and loving. But her modern outlook -- she hangs out with Gentiles and swims in the nude -- cannot abide the impedimenta of Jewish customs, traditions, and, in the case of her father (Maximilian Schell), a preoccupation with the past. Particularly annoying to her is his search for a suitcase containing old photographs and other mementos. He buried it in Antwerp during World War II (where, he cannot remember) while attempting to escape the Nazis. To find his past, Mr. Silberschmidt digs holes all over Antwerp, literally unearthing his roots. Meanwhile, Chaya becomes a nanny for children of joyless Hasidic Jews. The father, Mr. Kalman (Jeroen Krabbé), is so severe of aspect that his youngest boy, four-year-old Simcha, is afraid to talk and pees his pants at the sight of his domineering father. Chaya makes up with Simcha, gets him to talk, and discovers that Hasidic Jews are human, too -- thanks to kindly Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rosselini). Meanwhile, as Schell continues to dig, a token anti-Semite rules the lobby of the apartment building where Simcha and his family live. He is so bigoted and crabby that he tries to close an elevator door on Simcha's hand. Apparently, he is meant to warn viewers that there are plenty of Jew-haters left over from the Holocaust days. The film climaxes in a tragedy that spills tears and sends Chaya into a hole shoveling dirt alongside her father. A bright spot in this film is the superb acting. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide