The Tree of Life (2008) (NR)

synopsis

"The Tree Of Life," Hava Volterra's new documentary about her journey to Italy to trace the roots of her Jewish ancestors is a personal family saga that illuminates the fascinating history of the Jews of Italy. The film follows the Israeli-born director, an engineer in Los Angeles, as she struggles to come to terms with her father's death by traveling to Italy, the land of his birth, to trace the roots of his family tree. Beginning in the ancient Adriatic city of Ancona, Volterra and her feisty 82-year-old Aunt Viviana travel extensively through Italy, digging up rare historical manuscripts, interviewing an array of quirky historians, and discovering the astonishing and humorous stories of their ancestors, including moneylenders and bankers in Florence of the Medici; a prominent Venetian rabbi and mystic involved in the Kabbalah; a mathematician who headed Italy's academy of sciences in the early 1900s; Italy's first Jewish prime minister, and finally, a prominent Italian-American politician whose name will be familiar to all New Yorkers. The film also includes the poignant reunion of Viviana with the Italian family who sheltered her and Ms. Volterra's father from the Nazis during WWII.