In Search of Happiness (2005)

Original title

V Poiskach Schastia

Directed by

Alexander Gutman

Genre

documentary film

Country

Russia

Runtime

52 min

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows Boris and Masha Rak, two Soviet Jews who moved to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934. It shows their life in Birobidzhan, where the Jewish population has declined sharply over the decades.

poeticreflectivemelancholicslow-pacedobservationalintimatehistoricalcontemplative

What happens

In Search of Happiness (Russian: В поисках счастья) is a 2005 Russian documentary film that poetically follows the lives of Boris and Masha Rak, Soviet Jews who in 1934 moved to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) created by the Soviet government in Russian Far East. The film won the Best Documentary award in the Russian Film Festival in 2006. The Jewish population of the JAO never reached 30% and as of 2003 it was only about 1.2%. The population of the capital, Birobidzhan, has dwindled. The city's only Birobidzhan Synagogue holds services twice a week. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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