Are some stories too good to be true? Yes, some are. But, oh, how we want to believe what we want to believe. We are living in a time where that has never been more apparent. “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled,” as Mark Twain said, has never been a more relevant quote.
The new documentary “Misha and the Wolves” was, at least for one book publisher and journalists worldwide, “too good to fact-check” (that’s another quote). A Belgian woman recounted for all her life that she was a Holocaust survivor whose Jewish parents were deported and that she, only 7 years old, spent the4 next several years walking alone in the forest.
Already sounds fishy, but Misha, now an elderly woman living in Massachusetts has so many small details to offer to anyone who will listen, and it turns out everyone in her small Mass burg is eager to hear.
Foraging for food and staying clear of German soldiers, little Misha was eventually adopted by a pack of wolves. She remembers it all so clearly.
One person in particular who believed, or wanted to believe her story, was a small-time publisher. With dollar signs in her eyes, the publisher signed on the storyteller and got her story published worldwide in dozens of languages. Even Oprah Winfrey was interested in having this story, and Misha as an in-studio guest, on as part of her famous book of the month club. Apparently, such an appearance would be worth 1 million copies sold.
Even though the trailer and description give away the truth (which I’ll leave you to watch yourself down below), this is a film with more than one twist. There are several, and the film really accelerates when it becomes a detective story by an unlikely hero- a little old lady in Brussels.
There is one device which is becoming more common and with which I do not agree: lately, documentarians have been using actors to portray certain real-life characters without telling us right away. In other words, the audience has been tricked, if only for a while, by the director – it just doesn’t feel right to a doc fan like me.
But, man, what an interesting tale and it’s so well-produced. The 90 minutes will fly by and send you straight to Wikipedia to learn even more afterwards.
3 ½ out of 4 stars| Streaming on Netflix| Reviewed by Kyle Osborne