''Le Grand Akshan'' is a 2003 documentary film by Ron Goldman about a doomed ship's failed voyage to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
that happens to uncover shocking family secrets.
Plot
Reading a newspaper article about the search for the wreck of the , a small ship that was torpedoed and sunk carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
to Palestine, Goldman is shocked when his grandmother reveals that his great-great-grandfather Luzer was one of the nearly 800 passengers who died that day in the waters of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
. This once-unspoken family history leads Goldman to dig deeper and further, until he has revealed a narrative that is deeply complex, and says more about his legacy than his ancestors ever hoped to share.
At the center of this narrative is Goldman's great-grandfather, Luger's son Grisha, a man whose tenacity earned him the professional nickname, ''Le Grand Akshan'', or “the truly stubborn one.” Goldman once considered his great-grandfather a source of embarrassment because of the corny middle name he inherited from the mysterious “man with the sharp, piercing look” whose picture hung in his grandmother's study. He is shocked to learn the central role that Grisha played in helping his family escape the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. His heroics involved a harrowing series of moves that took him to Romania,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and, eventually, the young state of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, where Grisha entered the nascent cinema industry. Goldman became fascinated with his great-grandfather, and the drive to learn more about him fuels Goldman to complete the film.
See also
*
* — a similar sinking on 5 August 1944
*
Patria disaster
The ''Patria'' disaster was the sinking on 25 November 1940 by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah of a French-built ocean liner, the 11,885-ton , in the port of Haifa, killing 267 people and injuring 172.
At the time of the sinking, ...
*
Struma disaster
The ''Struma'' disaster was the sinking on 24 February 1942 of a ship, , that had been trying to take nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania in World War II, Axis-allied Romania to Mandatory Palestine. She was a small iron-hulled ship of only ...
*''
Voyage of the Damned''
References
*
*
External links
The Jewish Channel's review
Documentary films about Jews and Judaism
Israeli documentary films
Documentary films about historical events
2000s English-language films
{{hist-documentary-film-stub