Directed by Laura Fairrie, Spiral is a documentary exposing the fact that over the last two decades, a rise in physical attacks and verbal assaults on Jews documented in many countries across Europe. Particularly, Jews in France are forced into a ghetto living condition, while some, are driven to leave France and immigrate to Israel.
At the same time an increasingly fractured world has exposed deep political, social, and racial division, especially in France. The documentary is about how a cycle of fear, hatred, and violence has taken hold.
I am not a fan of documentaries because they easily create an image or vision that twists or skews the facts or truth of a situation. Spiral seems to be a movie about bigotry with an anti-religious (anti-Semitism) happening in France. Apparently, the government is doing nothing about it.
According to a conversation with Fairrie, she was approach by John Battsek, produced One Day In September, with the idea of investigating widespread reports of rising attacks and abuse against Jewish people in Europe.
“After an intensive research period I wrote a detailed document outlining my creative vision and the ournalism at the heart of the film. Once Cohen Media committed to financing the film,” says Fairrie.
The documentary is about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in France. The feel throughout the movie is fear with undercurrents of dread and distrust. Yet, the scenes with the teacher, François, changed the rhythm of the documentary. He understood the tensions on all sides. Like he was an insider and knew the cause and effect of anti-Semitism.
Fairrie, somehow, obtained access to Dieudonné, who is a French anti-Semitist comedian. He is well-known entertainer of African descent, disreputable for mockery of the Holocaust while jabbing with anti-Semitism in general. Fairrie got him to talk about his point of view in the matter. I was happy to hear in the movie that a legal team is prosecuting him.
Some of the stories of hatred are hard to believe, and it’s hard to confront such a situation in beautiful France. If one religion is being attacked, then all religions are being attacked. Religious freedom!
The documentary is primarily in French with English subtitles. The cinematography by Jean-Louis Schuller is beautiful at times and works with the story of Jewish people in terrible situations. The movie is not entertaining. The information is disheartening and without a sound resolution.