Bau, Artist at War

Oskar Schindler compiled the list. Joseph Bau forged their papers. Bau started forging before the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto and continued crafting counterfeit documents after immigrating to Israel, to help the Mossad save further lives. Viewers should know part of his story from Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. He was the young man who married his wife in a secret ceremony, while they were both prisoners of the Plaszow concentration camp. Yet, there was more to the story of the man who would be known as the “Israeli Walt Disney.” Bau becomes the lead figure of his own film in Sean McNamara’s Bau, Artist at War, which releases today in theaters.

Bau always used humor to deal with the horrors of National Socialism, but this film is far from another phony Life is Beautiful. The artist is only too conscious of the limits of his art to console and distract—but at least it is something. In fact, it is a small form of resistance, which is why his attitude and humor so alarm his father, Abraham.

Rather ominously, junior SS officer Franz Gruen remembers Bau from the ghetto. It was decidedly bad to be memorable in this context. However, the commandant, Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Goth protects Bau—at least from summary execution—because he values the artist’s skills as a map-maker and a gothic letter (signage was a big deal for Goth). Indeed, this is the same Goth menacingly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Spielberg’s film.

Having been largely assigned inside work, Bau comes to know Itzhak Stern (previously Sir Ben Kingley), Goth’s office manager and Schindler’s future bookkeeper. With Stern’s help, Bau continues forging papers for the resistance. He learns about the list, because he will create contingency documents for every name on it. However, he insists his wife, Rebecca Tennenbaum take his place on the list. Conversely, she argued argues against the substitution, because he was more valuable to the resistance.

As viewers can guess from the film’s flashback structure, Tennenbaum out-maneuvered her husband, but at what cost? Regardless, Bau had plenty of reasons to testify against Gruen, but he remains profoundly skeptical of post-war Austrian justice—also with good reason.

Screenwriters Smerecnik, Ron Bass (Rain Man and Gardens of Stone), and Sonia Kifferstein seemingly incorporate elements of many holocaust dramas, including the climactic war crimes trial, but in doing so, they faithfully chronicle Bau’s extraordinary biography. Indeed, there is definitely a celebration of life, as well as the exposure of past horrors.

This might also represent one of Emile Hirsch best performances, fully encompassing Bau’s brash defiance and later fatalism. Hirsch also credibly plays Bau in his middle-aged years, despite only passable aging makeup. Similarly, Israeli thesp Inbar Lavi illuminates the darkness like you might not expect from her U.S. TV work (notably Lucifer) as Rebecca. It is a stirring and poignant portrayal that is sadly all but guaranteed to be ignored during awards season.

Yan Tual is appropriately terrifying as Gruen. Yet, without necessarily “humanizing” the monster, he also shows the killer’s pathetic smallness inside, which metastasized into such viciousness. Likewise, it is also interesting to see Josh Backer as Amon Goth—and inevitably compare him to Fiennes. His more restrained take is chilling in its own way, because the violent eruptions seemingly come without warning. Arguably, Edward Foy bears a better resemblance to the historical Schindler than Liam Neeson, but he still conveys a similarly conflicted conscience.

McNamara utilizes Bau’s vintage caricatures and prints for some truly striking transition images. The use of color for the early 1970s scenes and black-and-white for the concentration camp also nicely differentiates the respective tones of each period. McNamara maintains a high degree of historical accuracy, even in the Tel Aviv sequences, where Bau’s depositions are interrupted by trips to the nearest bomb shelter. While not belabored, the genocidal parallels between the National Socialist Germans and Israel’s enemies are inescapable.

Admittedly, McNamara’s film cannot match the artistry of Schindler’s List, but it is still quite a powerful work that nicely compliments Spielberg’s film. It provides a fuller picture and arguably better develops many of the historical figures as characters, including Rebecca and Joseph Bau. Highly recommended for general audiences, Bau, Artist at War opens today (9/26) in theaters, including the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.