Australian
Screen

an NFSA website




Angst (1993)

Synopsis

The film looks at the lives of three Jewish comedians who are the children of Holocaust survivors. Deb Filler is from New Zealand, Sandy Gutman (Austen Tayshus) from Melbourne and Moshe Waldoks is from the USA. Each of the comedians discuss their work and its origins. They come to terms with their parents’ experiences, and use humour to express their own feelings about being Jewish and children of Holocaust survivors.

Curator’s notes

The documentary successfully takes a serious subject – children of concentration camp victims from the Second World War – and gives it a human face. The subjects, all working comedians, use their own experiences in their acts and bring humanity to their interviews. The documentary becomes a celebration of life in spite of terrible hardship.