In Search Of Happiness
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''In Search of Happiness'' (russian: В поисках счастья) is a 2005 Russian
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
that poetically follows the lives of Boris and Masha Rak,
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s who in 1934 moved to the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO; russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, (ЕАО); yi, ייִדישע אװטאָנאָמע געגנט, ; )In standard Yiddish: , ''Yidishe Oytonome Gegnt'' is a federal subject ...
(JAO) created by the Soviet government in
Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
. The film won the Best Documentary award in the
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Film Festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...
in 2006. The Jewish population of the JAO never reached 30% and as of 2003 it was only about 1.2%. The population of the capital, Birobidzan, has dwindled. The city's only
Birobidzhan Synagogue The Birobidzhan Synagogue was established in 2004. The synagogue is in the city of Birobidzhan, which is the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the only autonomous oblast of Russia. It is "the first synagogue in Russia to be built partly w ...
holds services twice a week.


Summary

The film shows Boris's and Masha's modest life, without modern technology, relying on each other's hard work to survive. Rak is the chairman of Birobidzhan's last
collective farm Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...
, which excessive rain has reduced to a
swampland A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
. For Rak, the puddles have become "a memorial to his life's work." The two also raise animals, which are all given the names of political leaders.
"No one wants to invest any money in this city, because they don't want two homelands,” one of the only practicing Jews in Birobidzhan explains, “Jews in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
all receive money. But the only money we get is to help the Jews who are here to leave.”
The documentary stresses human vulnerability. Nature has reduced the once prosperous communal farm into a swampy, puddled mush. Physical handicaps and old age cripple the people that the film follows, and it is clear that their expectations of the Jewish Republic have been met by disappointment. Despite being subjected to the negative effects of rain, aging, politics, and other's people's decisions, Rak and Masha continue to persevere.


Accolades

*Winner, Best Documentary in the Russian
Film Festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...
, 2006 *Honorable Mention in the Cinema du Reel Film Festival, 2006 *Official Selection in the
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
Festival for Documentary Films, 2006 *Official Selection Docpoint Film Festival, 2006


See also

*
Jewish State In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the nation-state and sovereign homeland of the Jewish people. Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as a polity to serve as the homeland for the Jewish people. It ...
*
History of the Jews in Serbia The history of the Jews in Serbia is some two thousand years old. The Jews first arrived in the region during Roman times. The Jewish communities of the Balkans remained small until the late 15th century, when Jews fleeing the Spanish and Po ...
*
Secular Jewish culture Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not a faith-based religion, but an orthoprax and Ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, practic ...
*
List of Czech and Slovak Jews There was a large and thriving community of Jews, both religious and secular, in Czechoslovakia before World War II. Many perished during the Holocaust. Today, nearly all of the survivors have inter-married and assimilated into Czech and Slovak ...
*
Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism ''"Progressive" Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism'' is a 2006 essay written by Alvin Hirsch Rosenfeld, director of Indiana University's Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and professor of English and Jewish Studies. It was p ...
*
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "For ...
*
Antisemitism and Joseph Stalin The accusation that Joseph Stalin was antisemitic is much discussed by historians. Although part of a movement that included Jews and rejected antisemitism, he privately displayed a contemptuous attitude toward Jews on various occasions that wer ...
*
Jews and Judaism in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast The history of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast ( JAO), Russia, began with the early settlements of 1928. Yiddish and Russian are the two official languages of the JAO. According to Peter Matthiessen, The Birds of Heaven,p20-21, “Accord ...
Other documentaries about Jewish communities outside of Israel: *'' Jews of Iran'' *''
Next Year in Argentina ''Next Year in Argentina'' (original title ''El Año Que Viene en... Argentina'') is a 2005 Documentary film, documentary about diaspora Jews, who have either decided to remain in Argentina or move to Israel. Argentine-Israeli filmmakers Jorge Gur ...
'' *''
The Jewish Steppe ''The Jewish Steppe'' is a 2001 documentary about a group of Russian Jews who, suffering as a result of prejudice and fearful of pogroms, left their homeland to farm the Crimean Peninsula. Established in the 1920s, their Soviet agrarian commune ...
''


References


External links

*{{IMDb title
''The Jewish Channel's'' review of ''In Search of Happiness''Director Alexander Gutman's essay
Mass media in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast 2005 films Documentary films about Jews and Judaism Documentary films about refugees Russian documentary films 2005 documentary films