By ALAN SMASON
Polish filmmaker Rafal Zielinski is finally seeing his independent film “Tiger Within” released in theaters today, Friday, July 7. The motion picture released through Menemsha Films is notable in that it stars the late Emmy Award-winning actor Ed Asner in his final film role.
With principal photography having been shot in 2018, Zielinski was in the midst of post-production on the film when the COVID pandemic shut down all theaters worldwide and slowed down the process of entering film festivals. Asner died in 2021 at age 91.
In the film he plays Samuel, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who in his final commitment to forgiveness befriends a troubled teenage runaway wearing a swastika on her leather jacket. After having beaten hundreds of hopefuls looking to play the role, Margot Josefsohn, a real life 14-year-old, plays the disconnected and disturbed Casey Miller. She plays the role with a nuanced performance that might be expected from a more veteran film actor. As much as “Tiger Within” will be remembered for having been the seven-time Emmy Award winner’s final film, it will also be embraced as Josefsohn’s breakout performance.
Samuel discovers Casey asleep near the grave of his deceased wife. He spots a spray painted swastika on her leather jacket and is disgusted that such a child could be promoting a symbol of hate that threatened his existence as a younger man. He begins to walk away until he suddenly remembers a promise he made to his wife to forgive everyone else in the world before he dies. He returns to the graveside to confront the teen and they eventually become unlikely friends; later they form a makeshift family.
Zielinski, a Polish director with earlier successes at Sundance (“Fun” and “Ginger Ale Afternoon”) worked with screenwriter Gina Wendkos to construct a story about Samuel’s embracement of forgiveness before he dies. Casey, who is working as an underage massage therapist to get by, is resourceful. She takes on the job as necessary and on her own terms. The film avoids showing her at work implying the massages are more than just massages. In one scene she is pictured scrubbing her hands long and deliberately after a session. What else can a school dropout do, she asks Samuel.
Casey’s backstory shows her as the product of a broken home. Her alcoholic mother is living in an abusive relationship in Cleveland with a man who beats her. When her mom turns on her, Casey runs away, electing to move to California to live with her father and his new family. Fearful, she watches from afar as her father, stepmother and three stepdaughters show up late and vocalize how they are glad she didn’t show up. Her father reluctantly goes along with the rest and they leave. Casey has no family.
Later, after learning to trust Samuel, she moves into his place and the two explore how to improve her life by enrolling in school and her becoming a lady. He explains to her about the promise he made to his now deceased wife. Two black and white photos – one of a young couple and the other of two young girls – are all Samuel has to show for his family. When pressed, he reveals that the girls were twins and that neither of them lived to maturity because of the Holocaust.
Casey’s belief system that the Holocaust was all made up and her ignorance of it slowly comes crashing down as she learns of Samuel’s story and his sincerity. He advises her how to deal with her fear of confronting her mother as well as her father’s family. He tells her she must learn, as an old Chinese proverb suggests, to embrace the tiger within her.
To demonstrate the concept, the two journey to Cleveland to ask her mother’s permission for Samuel to become Casey’s legal guardian. This allows her to enroll in a new school and eventually for her to begin a normal relationship with a boy who admires her from afar, Tony (Diego Josef). Like the common roots in their surnames, Josef pairs well with Josefsohn in their scenes. He finds her refreshing and honest, something his other classmates lack.
Because of child labor laws and SAG/AFTRA union rules, the filming was limited to just five hours a day. Asner pushed himself to rehearse the written scenes and Zielinski immediately shot it. There is an overwhelming sense of realism in the work, sparked by the filmmaker’s own spiritual inspiration about this film. Before he shot one frame, Zielinski consulted with various philosophical approaches to forgiveness and its enduring spirit. Credits for the work include Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist consulting sources.
Another beautiful addition to the post-production are the use of highly stylized drawings that accompany the film to suggest Casey’s talent as an artist and to give emotional impact to the scenes, emphasizing her feelings. She is often seen looking at a sketchbook of her own drawings. Zielinski’s wife Vally Mestroni and animator Clara Collins collaborated on the work to wonderful effect.
Also of note is the music score by Marc Tschanz which serves to give better insight into the performances captured on celluloid.
Released through Menemsha Films, “Tiger Within” (2 hours and 19 minutes) opens today in select theaters. The film will be available on Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play/YouTube Movies, ChaiFlicks, and cable providers such as DirecTV, Dish, Verizon, Frontier, Comcast, Charter, and Cox.