Bloodlines (2008) (review)

The Australian documentary, Bloodlines, directed by Cynthia Connup, brings together Bettina Goering, the grandniece of Hermann Goering and Ruth Rich, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. After viewing an on-line exhibit of Rich's paintings, Goering's descendent travels from her home in America to Australia to meet Rich, an artist who had recently explored Holocaust themes in her work. Bloodlines has similarities with the documentary, Inheritance, shown on PBS in late 2008. That film, directed by James Moll, unites the actual daughter of Amon Goeth, the infamous commander of Plaszow (Ralph Fiennes' character in Schindler's List) and a Jewish woman prisoner named Helen Jonas, who had worked as Goeth's maid at his villa in the Plaszow camp. In both films, a woman is filmed as she travels to another continent to meet with a complete stranger, somewhat like a reality television stunt. However, Inheritance tries much harder to delve into Holocaust history and is well documented, even showing film of Goeth being hanged at the end of the war. The filmed meetings between Monika Hertwig, Goeth's daughter, and Helen Jonas capture emotions that somehow transcended the reality TV staging. In Bloodlines, however, the connections between the two women seem contrived. A voiceover melodramatically states their families were "bitter enemies" but little effort is made to explore their respective family histories.

Only well-known facts about Herman Goering, such as his role as commander of the Luftwaffe, are mentioned in Bloodlines. His more relevant role in organizing the concentration camps is barely discussed although we get a glimpse of Bettina Goering watching the 2000 TV movie Nuremberg, in which Brian Cox played her great-uncle on trial after the war. In a more promising scene, Rich is shown visiting a Holocaust survivor who had later sponsored Rich's parents' emigration to Australia in 1956. However, although Rich calls her by her first name this female survivor is not otherwise identified nor is she interviewed on her own (her name, Milka Lester, appears only in the credits). Interestingly, this woman, who knows that all possessions were taken from prisoners, is shocked that a photograph of Rich's brother has survived despite the fact that both of Rich's parents were in the camps. Ruth Rich, who was born in 1947, also has a photograph of her parents before WWII and one of her father, oddly smiling, in prisoner's uniform. Apart from Rich's mention that her mother was in the Bergen-Belsen camp, how Rich's parents survived the Holocaust while their young son died is never examined throughout the film.

The film is more interested in Ruth Rich's paintings of Holocaust themes and showcases them in an unproblematic manner. Rich's comments on her own paintings and the title of her exhibit "Redemption through Darkness" unfortunately suggest that her art is little more than an egotistical exploitation of Holocaust themes in the interest of therapy. Her encounters with Goering's grandniece seem to be part of this therapy. Bettina Goering, who is more informative about her family and personal history than Rich, had previously made great efforts to distance herself from her family's past and it is surprising that she submits to Rich's emotional tirades against Nazism directed at her. Born in 1956, Goering resented her family's Nazi connections and left home at the very young age of thirteen to become a hippie. This rebellious woman from Germany's post-war generation had even had herself sterilized rather than carry on her Goering bloodline. She later had a series of breakdowns and confinements in mental hospitals. Goering now lives with her German husband in a rambling house in Santa Fe and practices acupuncture and homeopathic medicine.

These two photogenic women have strong, independent personalities and the filmmaker is fascinated with exploring their New Age sensibilities and recording their bonding rituals. Rich's picturesque home is photographed as though it is an Australian Esalen, as the artist and the hippie are filmed indulging in emotional encounters and cathartic rituals. Their overheard...