SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

celebritypaperinthebin I wanted to like this documentary. After the first ten minutes I was ready to Love it. Something like this can only happen once in a lifetime and Arnon Goldfinger was at the heart of a discovery that would change many a life and alter the perspective of your whole reality.How can a former SS Officer's family and a Jewish family who had to leave Germany maintain a friendship, forgetting all that has gone before and finding solace in the mutual reconciliation of a friendship that could survive even the greatest Horrors of the 20th Century and the modern enlightened era?After a few minutes of this documentary I fell in love with the idea and was hoping that Arnon would call up a real documentary maker like Louis Theroux or anyone non-biased who could provide a well educated, non-egotistical objective view of the whole situation. Instead what we are delivered is one man's ignorant state of being, of not accepting 100 years of history. Blinkered by his own hangups and of a complete refusal to think that anyone could be friends after things that have never even directly affected him in his own life, Arnon goes around with arms folded and Tiger like glare in his eyes trying to force his attitude on everyone he comes across. He talks over people who make excellent points, and tries to hammer a life changing reality on a family that were so much happier before he ever entered their lives. The Von Mildenstein family approached everything from a well educated, very reasonable point of view. They share when needed and allow for new aspects and revelations, but when Arnon turns up in the end and says that "I felt you should know" that he had not backed down, researched Herr Von Mildenstein, and had traveled all the way to bloody Wuppertal to deliver this message was so infuriating that I actually paused the film and walked away for a good ten minutes before finishing the film. Real journalism would have seen many more bases covered. With a view from all sides, maybe even (god forbid) a bit of understanding or sympathy.Real journalism would have opened new doors and at the same time used all previous evidence to help form a balanced view of history, the present and the future.Real journalism is not one man trying to make himself feel better by being the one dog who will not let go of the same old bone. There are plenty more bones to be found.As it is, this documentary reveals nothing, accomplishes nothing, neglects everything and serves as a good waste of digital memory.I am so sad that I just sat through the whole thing and still don't know if Arnon feels better about himself. And I don't care. His parents and his grandparents were able to live happily and clearly were far more open minded to peace and harmony than he will ever be.I just felt like I was watching one man and his mid-life crisis unfolding before my very eyes. You cannot undo history Arnon, you can only make today better.

Larry Silverstein I found this documentary, written, directed, and narrated by Arnon Goldfinger, to be quite fascinating as it unravels like a detective story.When Arnon's grandmother Gerda Tuchler passes away in Tel Aviv, at the age of 98, Arnon and other family members, including his mother Hannah, converge on Gerda's apartment to help sort out its' contents. However when Arnon comes across an article from the 1930's, in the German newspaper Der Angriff ( a notorious Nazi propaganda publication), it opens up a Pandora's Box of questions and eventual investigations.Gerda and her husband Kurt Tuchler were living in Germany at the time, but they are shown in this article visiting Palestine with a known SS officer Leopold von Mildenstein and his wife. Further investigation by Arnon revealed letters and photos of a friendship between the Tuchlers and von Mildensteins which continued, after the Tuchler's migration to Palestine, during WW2 itself, and amazingly even after the war.One of the fascinating aspects of the film is that every time Arnon tried to find an answer to the past, new and vital avenues of inquiry would arise. It would take way too much space to document all that Arnon uncovered in the movie. However, I will say there were many surprises along the way which kept me quite riveted.Was von Mildenstein actually working with the notorious Nazis Eichmann and Goebbels, or had he left Germany on a world tour as his daughter Edda believed? Even after the war, did von Mildenstein work as a Coca-Cola executive despite the fact that his name was prominently mentioned by Eichmann at his trial? Was Arnon's great grandmother Susanne Lehmann sent to a concentration camp and murdered by the Nazis? If so, why wasn't he or any member of his family told about it?Crucial questions like these are attempted to be answered by Arnon, and as mentioned it all adds up to a riveting story where one layer after another is peeled off. I thought Goldfinger did an outstanding job, in his low key manner, of putting the pieces of this puzzle together in this exceptional movie.

MartinHafer 'Compartmentalization' is a type of psychological defense mechanism where a person has very conflicting values and/or behaviors and keeps them separate in their mind in order to avoid discomfort. An example would be a man who beats his wife and kids and yet otherwise appears to be a pillar of the community. While the term is never used in "The Flat", compartmentalization is a HUGE theme throughout this very unusual film.Aron Goldfinger made this documentary (using simple equipment) about his grandparents. It seemed when his grandmother died in her late 90s, the family began taking all of the old woman's things out of the apartment she had shared with her husband for many years in Tel Aviv, Isreal. During this process, something very strange turned up--a collection of photos and correspondences between the grandparents (the Tuchlers) and the von Mildensteins back in Germany. What made this so strange? Well, the Tuchlers were Jews who left Germany to avoid the Holocaust and Mr. von Mildenstein was a high Nazi official! In fact, although his own family today didn't know it (they thought he was a reporter), von Mildenstein actually hired Adolf Eichmann (one of the major architects of the 'final solution') and later worked for Josef Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry--and yet, as I said above, the Tuchlers and von Mildensteins remained friends and even visited each other in the years AFTER WWII! Yet, Mrs. Tuchler's own mother was killed by the Nazis! Wild, weird and a bit sad---this is a very unusual film that will pique your curiosity. Overall, a very intriguing little film indeed!

GeneSiskel Both of the previous reviews contain spoilers, and both are spot on in their discussion of the context and premise of "The Flat." However, as a viewer who enjoys documentaries and mysteries, but is neither Jewish nor Israeli, I found this film lacking."The Flat" posits and develops a mystery but goes nowhere with it. It ends focusing on little more than the relationship of the inquisitive film maker (a third-generation Israeli) and his see-no-evil mother (a second-generation Israeli), the two of them stumbling about in an overgrown German graveyard looking for a stone that isn't there, and that is unsatisfying.Sure, German Jews, from not later than Mendelsohn, were pulled in different directions simultaneously, and that tension makes for a potentially powerful story. But ultimately the story here is that there is no story. "No one reads Balzac anymore," an estate sale buyer, with bound volumes in his hands, says dismissively in Tel-Aviv. Another tosses a piece of furniture off a third-floor balcony to the parking area below. Such insights into contemporary Israeli attitudes are interesting, but they fail to sustain this motion picture. When the credits rolled, I felt cheated.