The man who cried

A Feature film of

Sally Potter

Production year2000

French release07/02/2001

Runtime

1h 37m

Synopsis

1927. Fegele, a young Jewish girl lives happily with her father, a choirmaster, and grandmother in a Russian village. Escalating anti-Semitism forces Fegele’s father to emigrate to America with the intention of sending money back to his family. Violence erupts in the village shortly after his departure. Fegele, along with other townspeople, flees, hoping to make it to America… but finds herself onboard a ship destined for England. Upon arrival, she is renamed Suzie, housed in a Catholic hostel and sent to a school where Yiddish is forbidden. It’s here she learns to sing. Ten years later, Suzie leaves England for Paris, where she finds work singing, and meets Lola, an ambitious Russian dancer. Suzie still dreams of crossing the ocean for America; in the meantime, impresario Felix Perlman offers them work in his new opera company. Suzie quickly falls for César, a gypsy horse trainer, while Lola falls in love with Dante Dominio, an arrogant Italian opera singer. When German troops invade Paris, Dante and Lola collaborate with the Nazis; Suzie stays with César and his band of bohemians. The Nazis hunt down Jews and gypsies. When Dante betrays Suzie, Lola leaves him, promising to help her friend. Suzie wants to stay her ground and fight, but César pushes her into leaving. Broken-hearted, Suzie agrees to go. The two women take to the seas, but their ship is bombed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Suzie is saved but Lola drowns. Once in the United States, Suzie tracks down her father whose trail leads her to Hollywood…