In Search of Happiness

Infobox Film
name = In Search of Happiness


image_size = 150px
caption = Boris Rak sitting in his Kitchen
director = Alexander Gutman
producer = Viacheslav Telnov
writer = Hana Belohradska
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio
released = 6 May, 1968 (USA)
runtime = 54 mins.
country = Russia
language = Russian with English subtitles
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id =

"In Search of Happiness" is a 2005 documentary film that poetically follows the lives of Boris and Masha Rak, Soviet Jews who in 1934 moved to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) created by the order of Joseph Stalin in Russian Far East. The film won the Best Documentary award in the Russian Film Festival 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 holds services twice a week.

ummary

The film shows Rak 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, which excessive rain has reduced to a swampland. For Rak, the puddles have become "a memorial to his life's work." cite web
last = Gutman
first = Alexander
title = Russia - In Search of Happiness
publisher = Journeyman Pictures
date = March 29 2007
url =http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=57198
accessdate = July 27 ] 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, Saint Petersburg, Kiev all receive money. But the only money we get is to help the Jews who are here to leave.” cite web
title = The Last Jews of Brobidzhan
publisher = Focal Point and World Media Network
date =1995
url =http://www.f8.com/FP/Russia/R04a.html
accessdate = July 27 ]

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.

Awards

*Winner, Best Documentary in the Russian Film Festival, 2006
*Honorable Mention in the Cinema du Reel Film Festival, 2006
*Official Selection in the Leipzig Festival for Documentary Films, 2006
*Official Selection Docpoint Film Festival, 2006

References

ee also

*Jewish State
*History of the Jews in Serbia
*Secular Jewish culture
*List of Czech and Slovak Jews
*Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism
*History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
*Jews and Judaism in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast‎

Other documentaries about Jewish communities outside of Israel:
*"Jews of Iran"
*"Next Year in Argentina"
*"The Jewish Steppe"

External links

* [http://tjctv.com/?p=218 "The Jewish Channel's" review of "In Search of Happiness"]
* [http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=57198 Director Alexander Gutman's essay]
* [http://www.marxist.com/MiddleEast/stalin_and_zionism.html Stalin and Zionism]