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Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: The flat on the third floor of a Bauhaus building in Tel Aviv was where my grandparents lived since they immigrated to Palestine in the 1930's. Were it not for the view from the windows, one might have thought that the flat was in Berlin. When my grandmother passed away at the age of 98 we were called to the flat to clear out what was left. Objects, pictures, letters and documents awaited us, revealing traces of a troubled and unknown past. The film which begins with the emptying out of a flat develops into a riveting adventure, involving unexpected national interests, a friendship that crosses enemy lines, and deeply repressed family emotions. And even reveals some secrets that should have probably remained untold. (Sundance Selects) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Reviewed by: Leba Hertz
    Nov 1, 2012
    100
    The movie feels more like a thriller and a mystery than a documentary. Perhaps someday, someone will be inspired to dramatize this astonishing story.
  2. Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Nov 28, 2012
    91
    I will salute the deftness and intelligence with which Goldfinger observes the reactions of the living to the revelations of the dead.
  3. Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Oct 25, 2012
    80
    No definitive answers are possible to the questions The Flat raises, which makes them all the more provocative.
  4. Reviewed by: Andrew Schenker
    Oct 16, 2012
    40
    The Flat details his efforts to understand this unusual situation, and although the film suggests that his relatives may have maintained this odd friendship as a denial of their homeland's betrayals, there's only so deep Goldfinger can dig.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. 10
    The finest film of the year. Neither a documentary nor a fiction film, it charts the discovery of an odd relationship between a Nazi and a Zionist by their descendants. Gradually, it reveals what it means to live in history--what you ignore, forget, what you do to survive. It's a much more personal film than Shoah and The Sorrow and the Pity, but it's as meaningful and moving. It must be seen. Expand

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