{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}} {{Infobox film | name = The Memory Thief | image = The Memory Thief.jpg
| caption = | director = [[Gil Kofman]] | producer = Gil Kofman<br>Marika Van Adelsburg<br>Amy Ziering | writer = Gil Kofman | narrator = | starring = [[Mark Webber (actor)|Mark Webber]]<br>[[Rachel Miner]]<br>[[Jerry Adler]]<br>[[Allan Rich]]<br>[[Peter Jacobson]]<br>[[Douglas Spain]] <br>[[Blu de Golyer]] | music = Ted Reichman | cinematography = Richard Rutkowski | editing = Curtiss Clayton | distributor = Seventh Art Releasing | released = {{Film date|2007|04|14|[[Philadelphia Film Festival]],<br/>[[Cambridge Film Festival]]|2007|07|12}} | runtime = 95 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''The Memory Thief''''' is a 2007 American [[Independent film|independent]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] film. It was written and directed by [[Gil Kofman]] and features [[Mark Webber (actor)|Mark Webber]] and [[Rachel Miner]] in the leading roles. The film chronicles the experiences of a young man who becomes involved in documenting the experiences of survivors of the [[Holocaust]], as his commitment turns into obsession and madness. The film, which was Kofman’s feature debut as a feature director, was shot on [[Digital video|DV]]. Critical reviews of the film were generally favourable.
==Plot== Lukas is a young man who works as a tollbooth operator. He does not have much of a social life, has few memories of his childhood, and spends much of his free time visiting his [[catatonic]] mother in the hospital. One day, one of the tollbooth customers tosses him a copy of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', and Lukas reads it, prompting a [[Holocaust]] survivor to berate Lukas as he drives through Lukas's booth. The next day the old man gives him a [[videotape]] containing his testimony from the [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. Watching the tape, Lukas becomes captivated, particularly after he spots the old man's [[obituary]] in the newspaper, and decides to attend the funeral. Mira, a young medical student, confronts him for attending a funeral without knowing the deceased and asks him to leave but relents after Lukas shows her the witness tape. While visiting his mother in the hospital, he runs into Mira again, and the two begin dating.
Lukas gets a job working for a Holocaust remembrance organization that conducts interviews of survivors. At this point, Lukas's behavior becomes obsessive. He hoards interview tapes, watching several simultaneously on different [[television set]]s. He wears a yellow star, plasters his wall with pictures from Holocaust camps, and buys lottery tickets based on the interviewees' tattooed [[Identification in Nazi camps|identification numbers]] from the camps. He writes long letters to the filmmaker Horowitz, who has made a movie about the Holocaust. He gives a pink triangle to his transgender co-worker, Dominique. He demands that all German cars use a different lane at his tollbooth. Mira and other Jews become concerned about his obsession with Holocaust memories and Jewish customs, especially since he is not Jewish himself. Eventually he persuades Mira's father, also a camp survivor, to record an interview. The Holocaust foundation fires Lukas for doing an interview before he is trained. The burden of recalling the memories is too much for Mira's father, who kills himself. Mira blames Lukas for her father's death, and Lukas is devastated.
Lukas buys his own camera and wanders the streets pushing the camera in people's faces, asking them if they are Jewish, and telling them that they are lucky to be alive. His erratic behavior gets him fired. He comes to believe that he himself is the last Holocaust survivor. He shaves his head and gets an identification number tattooed on his arm. He picks a fight with a group of [[White power skinhead|neo-Nazi skinheads]], and is beaten. The woman in the next bed to his mother in the hospital accuses him of not being her son at all, and he does not deny it. He gives away his shoes to his co-worker, and dons a home made concentration camp prisoner uniform as he embarks on what he describes as a [[death march]].
==Cast== {{Cast listing| *[[Mark Webber (actor)|Mark Webber]] as Lukas *[[Rachel Miner]] as Mira *[[Jerry Adler]] as Mr. Zweig *[[Allan Rich]] as Zvi Birnbaum *[[Peter Jacobson]] as Mr. Freeman *[[Douglas Spain]] as Dominic *[[Stella Hudgens]] as Amanda *[[Carlos Gomez (American actor)|Carlos Gomez]] as Amanda's father *Karen Landry as Mother *[[Mary Pat Gleason]] as Hospital patient (Mary) *[[Richard Riehle]] as Judaica store clerk *[[Carlucci Weyant]] as Chris *[[Blu de Golyer]] as Skinhead }}
== Production == ''The Memory Thief'' was the first feature film directed by the [[Nigeria]]n-born playwright Gil Kofman.<ref name="Catsoulis">{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/movies/09memo.html?partner=Rotten%2520Tomatoes |title=The Memory Thief|last=Catsoulis|first=Jeannette|date=2008-05-09|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=2009-09-08}}</ref> Kofman himself had married into a family of Holocaust survivors, so the topic of the film related to his personal life.<ref name="Hart">{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-03-21-0803190796-story.html |title=Holocaust toll rises, even after the passage of many years |date=March 21, 2008|last=Hart|first=Maureen M.|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|accessdate=2009-09-08 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230402064322/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-03-21-0803190796-story.html |archive-date=April 2, 2023}}</ref> In the interview sequences shown, the movie makes use of the testimonies of actual Holocaust survivors.<ref name="Catsoulis"/>
== Reception == ''The Memory Thief'' received mostly favorable reviews from critics. The review aggregate website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gave the movie a 79% fresh rating, based on 14 reviews.<ref name="RT">{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1195073-memory_thief/|title=The Memory Thief (2008)|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|accessdate=2009-09-08}}</ref> Jeannette Catsoulis, writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'', called it "a strange and melancholy journey to the heart of madness," and she commended the way the movie presented a counterbalance to formulaic Hollywood movies about the Holocaust.<ref name="Catsoulis"/> Maureen M. Hart of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' wrote that Kofman had "crafted an unusual tale of post-traumatic stress and pain and the ownership thereof," and she singled out for praise Jerry Adler's performance as an old Holocaust survivor.<ref name="Hart"/> Leba Hertz, on the other hand, in a review for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', complained that "something rings false" about the movie. For instance, she had difficulties understanding why a girl like Mira should be attracted to someone such as Lukas.<ref name="Hertz">{{cite news|url= https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-CLIPS-Also-opening-today-3214410.php#flick2 |title='The Memory Thief'|last=Hertz|first=Leba|date=2008-05-09|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|accessdate=2009-09-08}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0437250|title=The Memory Thief}} *{{Rotten Tomatoes|the_memory_thief}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Memory Thief, The}} [[Category:2007 films]] [[Category:2007 drama films]] [[Category:2007 independent films]] [[Category:American independent films]] [[Category:Films about the aftermath of the Holocaust]] [[Category:2007 English-language films]] [[Category:2007 American films]] [[Category:English-language independent films]]