Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years

Fifty years after the Holocaust, Zev Carpati is the sole Jewish survivor of that period in his Ukrainian community. Almost all the others were either victims of the various calamities afflicting European Jewry in this century, or they emigrated when they had the chance. While there are other Jewish people living in this region, they have largely lost their history and traditions, and look to Uncle Zev for continuity. This a documentary film about that man: a musician, historian and storyteller. It also explores the common situation of both Gypsies and Jews in the region, which in the past 80 years has belonged to the Austrian Empire, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. It is now part of the Ukraine. One highlight shows Zev taking a donated Torah scroll to his birth community; the moment shows clearly what has been lost and what still remains.