AllMovie

Actor Jeroen Krabbe made his directorial debut with this Dutch-Belgian-U.S. drama examining anti-Semitic attitudes in 1972 Antwerp. Free-spirited 20-year-old student Chaja (Laura Fraser) has a long-haired revolutionary lover and sometimes visits her parents (Maximilian Schell, Marianne Sagebrecht), both concentration camp survivors. Evading eviction from her apartment, Chaja finds work as a nanny with the Kalmans, an Orthodox Hassidic family. Initially rebelling against the rigid traditions, she eventually comes to terms with their way of life as she teaches their four-year-old to follow his father's doctrines. Adapted from Carl Friedman's novel The Shovel and the Loom, this film was shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival.