An old man wanting to forget, an old woman wanting to remember and a young man wanting to understand. Schreiber’s 2005 film “Everything is Illuminated” (based on the novel with the same name) is a film about past and how it is intrinsically lingered to the present, forgetting against remembering, disowning against honoring and of course, denial against acceptance.
The symbolic use of sunflowers is perhaps the most recognizable imagery from the film, bright and sharp colors growing atop a past tragedy. On 1969, the book “The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness” used a similar motif, its title comes from Wiesenthal’s (the author and a Holocaust survivor) observation of a German military cemetery which had a sunflower on each grave, in contrast to his fear of being placed on a mass grave.
In Everything is Illuminated, the sunflowers are not delicately placed over a grave though, there is a whole field of sunflowers above what we could consider to be a graveyard. Perhaps this nod was a way to not only reference Wiesenthal’s symbolism, but through this slight modification, the subtext becomes even more poignant: the blossoming of life and “illumination” over a tragedy.
Jonathan collects and catalogs items instead of emotionally processing his grief, just like Alex’s grandfather was blind (more symbolically than anything) to his heartrending past. However, while Jonathan collected all these items as a way to picture and understand his family’s traumatic origins, the grandfather recurred to rejection of these symbols (and their relation to his identity) as a way to forget (or attempt to).
The symbolism carried by the sunflowers is also emphasized through one particular item Jonathan collects. Austin’s necklace is a grasshopper fossilized in amber, which represents the person who saved Jonathan’s grandfather. In the sunflower field, Jonathan captures a living grasshopper for his collection and later on gives away the necklace to Lista (Augustine’s sister). A death insect is replaced by a living one, the grief of the past overtaken by the brightness of living things. However, this necklace with a death insect on it is not thrown away but gifted to a woman who still needed to reconcile with her past. With this poetic motif we are reminded that in order to overcome our own ghosts we need to remember, instead of conceal our own memories.
Of course, the film is also about religious and national identity (and the lost of these). Undoubtedly, considering the origins of Schreiber, this was a thematic that personally compelled him to portray this story. However, I would argue that it is not only about his Jewish origins but also about accepting the unwanted aspects of his personality and upbringing. I think that critic John Lahr expressed this far better than I could ever do, as he said:
"To a large extent, Schreiber's professional shape-shifting and his uncanny instinct for isolating the frightened, frail, goofy parts of his characters are a result of being forced to adapt to his mother's eccentricities. It's both his grief and his gift.”
This is a tale not only about confronting and accepting our own tragic past and identity, it is also about dealing with the unwanted aspects of ourselves. Instead of disregarding our flaws, or the characteristics we don’t like about us, it is about looking at them and accepting them to improve and keep moving forward. Just like we need a rearview to drive a vehicle, but we can’t drive if we keep looking backwards.
I came to this film expecting it to be the usual comedy that blends drama for emotional impact alone. However, I ended up enthralled by the resonating and thought-provoking themes the film comments on. It is also a visually meaningful and an aesthetically pleasant film, not in the sense of having a beautiful cinematography just so that you can hang a poster of it on your wall, but its imagery is filled with significance. From the previously mentioned sunflowers or the each of the items Jonathan collects, to his clothing, constantly in black attires as if he was ready to assist a funeral. I could keep talking about the meanings behind the moon reflected through the car’s rearview, the juxtaposition of the river with Jonathan’s collection or how the film closes with dirt thrown at a grave, a common western trope which this film uses not only as a depiction of grief but also as a memoir.
This movie is filled with hues, symbolisms and an emotionally compelling drama that is told to us through more visual means rather than written ones, accompanied also by the discrete yet involving performance of Elijah Wood. It really asks for revisits to truly grasp all its meaning, a “premium” film indeed.