One Day You’ll Understand

From acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitaï (MJFF 2005 film Free Zone), One Day You’ll Understand is a meditation on memory, identity, and the reconciliation that follows a French businessman’s growing obsession with the secrets of his family’s past. Suffused with a quiet glow of sympathy and enlightenment, the film is a diligently understated exploration of the legacy of anti-Semitism. As the 1987 trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie unfolds on television, Victor Bastien reviews old family documents and finds a distressing Aryan declaration authored by his late father, a discovery that throws Victor’s conception of his family’s history into darkness. His mother, Rivka (legendary actress Jeanne Moreau), keeps a stubborn silence about the past, while Tania, his sister, defends their father’s declaration. At the same time, Victor’s wife (Emmanuelle Devos) and children grow concerned about his increasing distraction. Burning with the need to unearth the truth, Victor takes his family to the tiny village where Rivka’s parents were forced to hide during the war. Poignant and ultimately optimistic, One Day You’ll Understand offers a compelling portrait of a family’s confrontation with the wounds of the past and their hopes for a better future.