À la recherche du bonheur

Boris Rak is the former president of the last Jewish kolkhoz in Birobidjan. His parents were among the first Jewish settlers to go out there. They had exchanged their horse and cart for a tractor and were among those who had left everything to build the Jewish Autonomous region, created by Stalin in 1928 in a corner of Siberia. Today, the descendents have either emigrated to Israel or moved elsewhere in Russia. All that remains are tombstones with a red star. Boris’s wife shows the rare visitors around the local museum, where photos, busts and trophies tell the story of what the newsreels of the time referred to as a saga of emancipation. Stalin had wanted the Jews to become assimilated... under the threat of death or prison. Yet, the “Jewish paradise” did not keep its promises. At times, Boris wonders to which people he belongs. He sends the little news there is to his son, now in Israel. The kolkhoz has been declared bankrupt.