THE LAST SUIT (EL ULTIMO TRAJE)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 -- Director Pablo Solarz creates a delightful post-holocaust film that begins in Argentina and journeys to Poland. It's the story of an 88-year old former Polish Jew, who survived Nazi concentration camps and escaped at the end of the war before the Nazi's could exterminate him.

Though it sounds like a depressing film, it has lighthearted moments as Abraham Bursztein (Miguel Angel Sola) leaves his daughters in Argentina after they sell his house with the intent to put him in a nursing home. He refuses, taking his personal savings and a bagged suit to return to the childhood friend who helped him to escape Europe.

During his journey he will land in the European gateway city of Madrid where he will befriend a young Spaniard (Martín Piroyansky) whom he conned out of his airplane seat, then befriend Maria (Angela Molina) the owner of a hostel. Their brief banter is priceless as is the dialogue between he and most of the people he encounters on his trip.

Things get darker after he is robbed of his savings and needs aid from the same people whom he despises - first a daughter, Claudia (Natalia Verbeke) and the a German gal named Ingrid (Julia Beerhold) who finely softens him up to accept that in the 70-years since he left, things are quite different.

In fact, most the aid he receives are from random women Abraham meets who don't pity him as much as respect what will surely be his final quest, especially since he is walking on a bad leg. (It is never revealed what is wrong with the leg, but it is implied that it may have originated while he was held by the Nazis.

Solarz, who also wrote the story, uses intimate photography to illustrate the wear and tear Abraham has suffered as well as the sense of genuine caring. Film mostly in Spain and Lodz Poland, we are transported from one quaint neighborhood to the next, sharing the angst Abraham feels as he returns to a Europe he doesn't know. The revelation of his post war ordeal is quite moving.

Sola delivers an impressive performance as he fits easily with his fellow cast members. Molina and Beerhold especially are genuine and well nuanced even in their relatively small roles.

"THE LAST SUIT (EL ULTIMO TRAJE)" is a both lighthearted and compelling as it segues from the humor of grandparenting to the drama of the holocaust and the search for redemption. [Spanish, French, Yiddish and German with English subtitles)   -- GRADE A --   GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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