Manfred
Goldfish (born Goldfisch) preferred to identify as a “citizen of the world.”
Having resided in Germany, Trinidad, and Australia, he qualified more than
most. When he was forced to immigrate from both Germany and Trinidad, it was to
escape escalating nationalistic ethnic violence, but for some reason (likely
ideological), his daughter sees little of interest in the parallels. Instead,
she focuses on finding the long-lost family members her father forced himself
to forget, as a coping mechanism, in the highly personal documentary, The Last Goldfish (trailer
here), which screens during this year’s New York Jewish Film Festival.
Her
father never spoke of his previous life in Germany, most definitely including
his first wife and their son and daughter. Su Goldfish (born Suzanne) only knew
her father Manfred and her English-born mother, Phyllis, who is the problematically
forgotten person in Last Goldfish, banished
to the corner after the first ten minutes. The discovery of her half-siblings
understandably gave rise to a host of emotions in Goldfish, but when her
initial letter to her half-brother went unanswered, she somewhat bitterly
back-burnered her interest for several years.
After
misspending the rest of her youth on numerous leftist causes, Goldfish renewed
her investigation into her ancestry. However, this time her interest would be
reciprocated, especially by her half-sister. Unfortunately, she rekindled
memories for her aging father at a time when he was increasingly weak and susceptible
to feelings of guilt and inconsolable loss.
Manfred
Goldfish’s story is indeed fascinating. Perhaps the film’s most remarkable
revelation is the friendship shared by Goldfish’s father and the Jewish German
athlete Gretel Bergmann, the subject of the film Berlin 36, whom the filmmaker interviewed as a spry and cogent centenarian
before her death last year at 103. Unfortunately, Goldfish is constantly
injecting her own thoughts, biases, and neuroses into the film. Frankly, you
would expect a memory-film like this would duly analyze the emotional toll it must
have taken when Trinidad’s “Black Power” street violence forced a survivor of
Hitler’s Germany to once again immigrate for his family’s safety. Yet, Goldfish
conspicuously opts not to go there.
