''My Father's House'' () is a 1947 British Mandatory Palestine-American drama film directed by Herbert Kline, with a script by Jewish-American novelist and journalist Meyer Levin. Kline and Levin produced the film. The cinematography is by

Floyd Crosby Floyd Delafield Crosby, ASC (December 12, 1899September 30, 1985) was an American cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1931 for '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'', his debut film, before going on to shoot over ...

. Amy Kornish and Costel Safirman, Israeli Film – A Reference Guide, Praeger, 2003, p. 103-104. Meir Schnitzer, Israeli Cinema: Facts/ Plots/ Directors / Opinions, Kinneret Publishing House, 1994. p. 38. The film was an official selection of the 1950

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

. One of the lead actors was the Israeli sculptor

Yitzhak Danziger Yitzhak Danziger (; 26 June 1916 – 11 July 1977) was an Israeli sculptor. He was one of the pioneer sculptors of the Canaanite Movement, and later joined the " Ofakim Hadashim" (New Horizons) group. Early life Danziger was born in Be ...

, who was cast due to his exotic appearance. At the time, Ronnie Cohen, the lead actor, was nine years old. He had been born in Britain to a Zionist family and had immigrated to Israel when he was three. The director spent a few months looking for an English-speaking child until he found Cohen through the film's make-up artist, who was the hairdresser of Cohen's mother. The music is mainly composed of Hebrew folk songs and occasionally Maller-Kalikstein music; the music editor was Henry Brandt. The locations were all in Mandatory Palestine, and are now Israel:

Afikim Afikim () is an Israeli kibbutz affiliated with the Kibbutz Movement located in the Jordan Valley three kilometers from the Sea of Galilee. It is within the jurisdiction of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it had a population of . Etymo ...

, Ginosar, Gvulot,

Kfar Hittim Kfar Hittim () is a moshav shitufi in northern Israel. Located on a hill 3 km west of Tiberias, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lower Galilee Regional Council. It was Israel's first moshav shitufi,

, Kinneret,

Kiryat Anavim Kiryat Anavim () is a kibbutz in the Judean Hills of Israel. It was the first kibbutz established in the Judean Hills. It is located west of Jerusalem, and falls under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population ...

Ma'ale HaHamisha Ma'ale HaHamisha () is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Judean hills just off the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway, It falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was fou ...

Ma'abarot Ma'abarot (, singular: Ma'abara ) were immigrant and refugee absorption camps established in Israel in the 1950s, constituting one of the largest public projects planned by the state to implement its sociospatial and housing policies. The ma' ...

, Nirim and

Ramat Rachel Ramat Rachel () is a kibbutz located in central Israel. An enclave within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, near the neighborhoods Arnona and Talpiot, and overlooking Bethlehem and Rachel's Tomb (for which the kibbutz is named), it falls unde ...

. This is an English-speaking film because it was made for the American-Jewish audience. The budget was provided mainly from wealthy Jewish residents of Palestine and Americans, and the remainder from Zionist institutions. Daver, November 5, 194

Plot

David Halevy is a ten-year-old

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

. He is separated from his father in Nazi-occupied

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. His father has told him that they will meet in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. After the war, David

goes The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

to Palestine, hoping that he will meet his father there. On the ship he befriends Miryam, who lost her family in an

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. David is taken to Meir Shfeya

youth village A youth village () is a boarding school model first developed in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s to care for groups of children and teenagers fleeing the Nazis. Henrietta Szold and Recha Freier were the pioneers in this sphere, known as youth ...

, but he cannot adapt and makes a journey to find his father. After a long journey he is told that his parents were both murdered in the Holocaust.

Cast

* Avraham –

* David – Ronnie Cohen * Maccabee – Michael Cohen * Miriam – Irene Broza * Shmulik – Zalman Levioush * Shulamit – Israela Epstein * Waiter – Raphael Klatchkin * Yehuda Halevi – Yoseph Millo * Nahama – Miriam Laserson

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=tt0039644, title=My Father's House 1947 films Cinema of Mandatory Palestine Films shot in Palestine (region) 1947 drama films British black-and-white films British drama films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Herbert Kline 1940s British films Palestinian drama films Films about immigration to Palestine and Israel