L ifestyle /C ulture
‘Misha’ a Tale of a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
“MISHA: A MÉMOIRE of the
Holocaust Years” was supposed
to be Misha Defonseca’s
magnum opus.

The memoir, published in
1997, recounts Defonseca’s
supposed escape from Nazi
clutches as a child after her
parents’ deportation to Germany.

After leaving her foster home,
Defonseca wanders through
the Belgian woods, eventually
befriending and living amongst
a pack of wolves.

The book was translated
into 18 languages, optioned for
a Disney film and landed a spot
on Oprah Winfrey’s bookshelf
as part of Oprah’s Book Club,
though book sales in the United
States were disappointingly
low, making it a fresh story for
today’s American audience.

Soon after the memoir’s
modest international success,
it — along with Defonseca —
fell from grace. (Spoiler alert!)
Defonseca’s publisher, Jane
Daniel, found inconsistencies
in Defonseca’s story, leading
Daniel to enlist a team consisting
of a genealogist, wolf-sanctuary
founder and journalist, among
others, to uncover the real story
of Defonseca.

The fallout of Defonseca’s
exposure as a fraud is unrav-
eled in “Misha and the Wolves,”
a true-crime documentary
by Sam Hobkinson now
streaming on Netflix.

The documentary intro-
duces the story’s players, as
a series of characters — each
with a connection to Defonseca
— relay their part of the narra-
tive. Defonseca, a stoic older
woman with pulled-back gray
hair and outdated makeup,
shares her thoughts, too.

Hobkinson spends the
first third of the film building
suspense, stitching together
interviews and b-roll to leave
the audience incredulous of
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM The “real” Misha Defonseca is still alive and is an animal lover.

Defonseca’s story, with Daniel
giving the bulk of the detailing.

After Daniel reveals Misha’s
story as fraudulent, Hobkinson
tries to shock the audience: He
shoots a scene of the woman
in the first half of the film who
spoke as Defonseca sitting in
a makeup chair, removing a
wig and revealing herself to be
nothing more than an actor.

Hobkinson’s clever narra-
tive tool falls short, however,
due to one-dimensional acting
from “Defonseca,” a character
known to others as eccen-
tric and warm. Her lines feel
scripted and unoriginal, and
her perspective does not feel
special enough to warrant her
presence in the documentary.

Moreover, to pull off this
stunt the documentary holds
off on revealing the “real”
Defonseca’s face, hiding photo-
graphs and video footage from
the audience.

For a film that sets out to
correct an untruth, the lack of
footage of Defonseca during
the first half of the film is
confusing and is representa-
tive of Hobkinson’s reliance
on telling his story through
interviews, as opposed to
compelling footage.

The documentary
is packed with B-roll footage
of a fictionalized Defonseca
hiking through the woods as
a young girl or of the film
crew dismantling the set of the
fake Defonseca’s actor’s home.

These shots were a missed
opportunity to not only show
old footage, but to give the
audience an inside look at the
process of uncovering a true
mystery. In fact, “Misha and the
Wolves” shines brightest when
it walks the audience through
uncovering the truth.

Much of Defonseca’s story is
debunked by Evelyne Haendel,
an actual Belgian Holocaust
survivor. Haendel, a geneal-
ogist, dives into archives and
finds the truth about Defonseca.

When she speaks to the camera,
Haendel feels honest, vulner-
able. The shots of her traveling
around Belgium, pouring over
old records, being surprised
with what she finds, transforms
“Misha and the Wolves” into
more than just an entertaining
documentary, but a real mystery
that needs dissecting.

Haendel’s astonishment at
the lengths Defonseca went to
spin her story is what makes
the film all the more engaging.

In addition to making sense
of why Defonseca chose to
falsify her story, Haendel had
to make sense of why someone
would choose to pretend to
be a Holocaust survivor, of all
people. To see the distress
Defonseca’s falsehood caused
for a Shoah survivor further
antagonizes Defonseca and is
a profound reminder to the
audience that the Holocaust
JEWISH EXPONENT
“Misha and the Wolves” is a true-crime documentary now streaming on
Netflix. Courtesy of MetFilm Sales
remains off-limits
for appropriation.

The end of the film takes
yet another turn, as it makes a
half-hearted attempt to redeem
Defonseca, who is still alive,
and, evidently, truly an animal
lover. A shaky attempt to add
nuance to the story, Defonseca’s
redemption detracted from the
harm she caused to those who
read and were affected by her
book. It was an out-of-place
addition to the film that had
potential, but was not executed
with enough intention and felt
like an afterthought.

The story of Defonseca
is an eerie one. It warrants
a conversation about the
validity of memory and the
complex morality of those who
have lied or made other bad
choices because of their own
past strife. Though Defonseca’s
story is worth knowing,
perhaps Hobkinson wasn’t the
best choice to tell it.

Unlike Defonseca, who
uses grandeur and charisma to
convince her audience of lies,
“Misha and the Wolves” does
nearly the opposite: It tries to
set the story straight, but lacks
the imagination to truly sell its
viewers. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
The 2021 Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and
Joseph S. Gruss Lecture in Talmudic Civil Law
Is the Value of Human Life
Paramount?: Law and Personal Autonomy in Rabbinic Law
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
5:30 PM
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
3501 Sansom Street
Dr. Ayelet Hoffmann
2021-2022 Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law
Individually packaged meals will be available
after the lecture for in-person guests. Dietary laws
will be observed. In-person registration is required
for entrance into the building.

This program has been approved for 1.0 Substantive CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credit may be available
in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should make a payment via the online registration link in
the amount of $40.00 ($20.00 public interest/non-proﬁt attorneys). In order to receive the appropriate amount of credit,
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Penn Law Alumni receive CLE credits free through The W.P. Carey Foundation’s generous commitment to Lifelong Learning.

To RSVP, please e-mail Neoshie Giles at:
gilesne@law.upenn.edu SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
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