"I grew up with the story of my grandparents, but that didn't mean I understood what happened. I needed to know what was worth standing up for-so much-that they would be willing to die and leave my father and my uncle who were two little boys."
- Ivy Meeropol
In "Heir to an Execution," filmmaker Ivy Meeropol attempts to uncover the personal story beneath the most publicized chapter in her family's history. Granddaughter of McCarthy-era icons Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, she delves into the drama, intrigue, and tragedy that surround the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953. The result is a documentary that tells a compelling family story, a story of "ordinary people" through which we are all asked to grapple with the question: Why did Julius and Ethel make their ultimate sacrifice?
Filmed with great poignancy and humanity, "Heir to an Execution" documents the pain of a mother and her orphaned children, the pain of a husband and father, and the pain of an extended family that cannot handle its shame. Through a collection of intensely private moments, Meeropol reveals that notions of guilt and innocence are often nuanced and come in varying shades of gray, and that some mysteries may never be fully understood.
The film gains much of its heft and resonance by capturing the mood of the McCarthy era. We witness, via newsreel footage: anti-Communist hysteria; cameo appearances of high-placed goons and thugs like Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joseph McCarthy; and eloquently spoken dreams of social justice shared by friends of the Rosenbergs. Of these friends, Marion Moskowitz-herself convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice in 1950-describes the era as "theater of the absurd. It was cruel, unfair, everything that a democracy would not expect to engage in. It was something that Kafka would have dreamed up."
The film affected me personally, both as a Red Diaper Baby, and as a wife and mother. In these times of world terrorism, reactionary government, and the Patriot Act, the film's relevance is indisputable. And yet, on her way to the Jewish cemetery where Julius and Ethel are buried, Ivy says that the film is "really about bringing them back home; reclaiming this story for our family." I think she succeeds.
Elizabeth Margolis-Pineo is a creative design professional In the Portland area. She has been a member of the MJFF board since 2001. www.margolispineo.com