If a Holocaust survivor told you, in granular detail, the circumstances of her childhood journey across Nazi-occupied Europe on foot as part of a wild wolfpack, would you ask for proof? That’s the ethical conflict playing out in Sam Hobkinson’s riveting documentary about Misha Defonseca and the women who, for better and for worse, played a part in putting her too-good-to-be-true account on an international stage.
The first half of the film concerns itself with how Defonseca’s account came to light, through interviews with the people she lived amongst in Millis, Massachusetts, after moving to the US in 1988. Neighbours, a radio host, synagogue friends and even the owner of a local wildlife sanctuary share their memories of the Belgian animal-lover, and together they paint a sympathetic picture of why they readily believed every word of her intrepid yarn.
The revelations are well-paced.
Amongst the talking heads is Jane Daniel, the publisher who convinced Defonseca to put pen to paper to produce and release ‘Misha: A Mémoire Of The Holocaust Years’ together. Daniel details her side of the working relationship: dramas over an Oprah appearance are illustrated from various angles, but a disagreement over royalties and profits led to her being successfully sued by the author for a career-ending amount. This is where things take a shocking turn, as Hobkinson begins to retrace the steps of Daniel’s well-overdue investigation into the veracity of Defonseca’s assertions.
Belgian Holocaust survivor and historian Evelyne Haendel serves as Daniel’s point person; she’s an intriguing, empathetic protagonist whose own story is endearingly juxtaposed with Defonseca’s to emphasise the gulf between their childhood experiences. The revelations are well-paced, and scenes using both reconstruction and archive footage, as well as a stand-in for Defonseca, help chronicle this cautionary tale with flair and narrative texture. Unfortunately, gaps in Defonseca’s history between Belgium and Millis cause the ending to arrive with parts of her story frustratingly missing. Still, Misha And The Wolves is an engaging, informative portrait of a scandalous hoax with an always-relevant reminder to check your sources.