The Entertainment MagazineMiv EvansMISHA AND THE WOLVES – a Stranger than Fiction MemoireBy Miv Evans This is a story involving a Belgian immigrant and a Massachusetts
publisher. It’s an intriguing tale about an intriguing tale that isn’t what it
seems. There’s deception on a grand
scale and international backlash that reverberates for years. Misha Defonseca was a Jewish child in Belgium when the German occupation
began. Her parents were arrested and deported by the
Nazis in 1941. She was smuggled into a foster
home, where she had to live as a ‘hidden child’. She
was alone and she was missing her parents badly. When she discovered they’d been deported to
Germany, she looked on a map. She decided
they were close enough for her to find. She
was just seven years old when she began her journey across Europe. To avoid capture, she travelled through woodland,
which was where a pack of wolves adopted her as their own. She lived with her four-legged friends and
made secret trips into the Warsaw Ghetto.
Somehow she survived. When the war
ended, she left the forest and found her way back home. Her parents were never seen or heard of again.
Jane Daniels was the owner of a publishing company when she heard Misha
tell her tale in a Massachusetts synagogue.
It was her who persuaded Misha to write a book about her life. Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years
was published in 1997. International buyers came knocking on Jane’s door. When she contacted Oprah’s Book Club, they invited
her onto their show. They also arranged a
publicity shoot in a North American wolf sanctuary, where Misha fed a wolf by
hand. When the wolf got onto his back
legs and took Misha’s head in his jaw, the entire crew held their breath. They exhaled when it became clear it was an
act of affection. For anyone who doubted
Misha’s story, this was a fait accompli. Then the first shoe dropped. For no given reason, Misha stopped taking Jane’s calls and refused to
appear on Oprah’s show. Then a summons
arrived. Jane was to attend a Boston
court to answer charges of copyright theft and withholding royalties. Evidence was submitted but the jury took the
side of the Holocaust victim. The
publisher was found guilty on all counts and ordered to pay damages of $22
million. With literally nothing to lose, Jane went through everything she had
that was connected to Misha. She didn’t
even know what she was looking for when she came across a bank slip that didn’t
make sense. Which is when the second
shoe dropped. Then the third. The filmmaker keeps them falling right until
the very end. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNP7XBC0Nbo Directed by Sam Hobkinson Produced by APT Film and Television (UK) Screened
at Sundance Film Festival January 31st, 2021 Miv Evans Home PageEntertainment Magazine© 2021 EMOL.org Entertainment Magazine. All rights reserved. |