L ifestyle /C ulture
‘The Man of the Monkey’ Examines Diaspora
FI L M
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
DAVID ROMBERG KNOWS
many North American Jews
are unfamiliar with the stories
of the Latin America diaspora.

As a high school student
in the United States, his class-
mates didn’t understand how
he could be Jewish, speak
Spanish and trace his roots to
Argentina. “There’s a whole kind of
narrative that’s missing,” he
said. His new documentary, “The
Man of the Monkey,” sheds light
on Latin American Jewish history
through the story of Romberg’s
family, a remote island, a local
legend and a brutal regime.

Romberg, assistant
professor of film studies
media and communications
at Muhlenberg College, spent
part of his childhood living on
Ilha Grande, an island off the
coast of Brazil. His father built
their house in the 1970s as a
refuge after he escaped from
the military dictatorship in
Argentina, also known as the
Dirty War. He was not the only
person in the family forced
to flee violence: Romberg’s
grandfather escaped Russian
pogroms, and his grandmother
is a Holocaust survivor.

The film follows Romberg as
he attempts to learn the origins
of a story his father told him
when he was a small boy: The
man of the monkey is said to
live in isolation in the forest
with a monkey for a wife, and
the animal attacks anyone
who ventures near, especially
women. The tale stays with
Romberg into adulthood and
he decides to interview other
islanders about their knowl-
edge of the legend.

As Romberg contacts more
and more people, stories about
a man with a monkey for a
wife evolve into mentions of a
white man with a monkey on
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM his shoulder. These eventually
morph into anecdotes about
run-ins with an Austrian or
German man who intimidates
locals near his home with
firearms and dogs.

More questions arise as it
becomes clear that the man
of the monkey is a real person
who arrived on the island after
World War II and earned a
fearsome reputation: Is he a
former Nazi who fled to South
America to escape prosecution
for war crimes? Is he working to
displace locals from their land
under the guise of environ-
mental conservation? Was
he involved in the Brazilian
dictatorship that led to the
disappearance and imprison-
ment of political dissidents on
the very island where Romberg
and his Jewish family lived?
While Romberg searches
for answers, he begins to learn
disturbing truths about the
place he called home for so
many years, as well as stories
about the generational trauma
of Jews living in the Latin
American diaspora.

“The Man of the Monkey”
took 10 years to film and more
than 10 years to research.

Romberg contacted multiple
Jewish organizations that
collected information about
escaped Nazis and war crimi-
nals, and combed through
records and passports from
different countries. Although
the film is full of interviews
from locals that help flesh
out the identity of the myste-
rious figure, Romberg said
he constantly ran into dead
ends as he tried to pin down
his identity.

As Romberg realized that
his father built their family
home on an island where polit-
ical dissidents were tortured
and a potential war criminal
terrorized locals, he questioned
whether true refuge is even
possible. “A lot of that came from
trying to understand what the
David Romberg explores Ilha Grande in “The Man of the Monkey.”
idea of refuge was as a concept
for the Jewish diaspora, but
specifically for the Latin
American-Jewish diaspora,
which experienced various
traumas, even after the war,
once they came to South
America, which had various
dictatorships,” Romberg said.

He said many Holocaust
survivors escaped to Latin
American countries, only
to find that Nazis and their
collaborators fled prosecu-
tion and settled in the same
places. In addition to the
proximity of former tormen-
tors, new dictatorships during
the 1960s and ’70s threatened
Jewish lives and livelihoods.

Some of Romberg’s own family
members disappeared during
the Argentinian dictatorship,
and many Jews were among
the intellectuals, students and
artists who were targeted.

“For me, it was important to
trace that history,” he said.

Romberg’s understanding
of refuge also shapes his
understanding of nationality
and belonging. He lives in the
United States and many of his
family members, including
his Holocaust survivor grand-
mother, live in Israel. While
JEWISH EXPONENT
they love their home countries,
their history of constant
displacement means feelings
of safety and belonging are
elusive. “For Jews specifically, it’s an
interesting problem, because
we have been moving from
continent to continent, from
place to place, for so long that
one wants to think that there is
a place that you end up at,” he
said. “From my experience, I’m
Courtesy of David Romberg
not sure that’s true, because
even now, even though I think
of the United States as my
home, I don’t culturally neces-
sarily identify completely with
the United States.”
“The Man of the Monkey”
is available to screen virtually
from the Miami Jewish Film
Festival until April 29. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
APRIL 22, 2021
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