The Man Who Loved Haugesund

Running time: N/A

North American Premiere. Great stories are timeless. Great people are inspirational. Sometimes, on a rare occasion, we are lucky enough to discover both. A Polish Jew, Moritz Rabinowitz, was an astute businessman who built his clothing empire from scratch, after years of selling textiles and watches from village to village. Before the war, he was an outspoken fighter against Nazism and was the first person the Germans wanted to arrest after the occupation. He wrote prolifically (including telegraphs to Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt pleading for them to save the Jews of Germany and Poland), while alienating many in his small hometown, the Norwegian fishing village of Haugesund. The Man who Loved Haugesund captures Rabinowitz's complex personality, through the eyes and ears of a small town, while offering a glimpse of looming global terror. Veteran documentary filmmakers, Jon Haukeland and Tore Vollan, combine astute insight and poetic storytelling in bringing Rabinowitz and Haugesund into our 21st century entrepreneurial, now orange-alert consciousness. Rabinowitz's loyalty to his faith and his outspoken sensibilities against an accepted global leader (Hitler) are an example to us all. - Ben Hess. Preceded by: Caravan (Dag Murk, 9 min., Norway) A couple's caravan gets in the way of their troubled love life. Also preceded by: United We Stand (Hans Petter Morland, 9 min, Norway) Eight old-timers come upon a young woman stuck in a swamp.