A Conversation With Elan Golod (NATHAN-ISM)

A cinematic twister lensed with abundant patience and empathy by first-time feature director Elan Golod, a former Israeli soldier and a veteran editor, Nathan-ism tells the stranger-than-fiction saga of outsider artist Nathan Hilu, a WWII vet and NYC-born son of Syrian Jews, who was tasked to guard the top Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials. He then spent the next seven decades obsessively preserving his historical record through “Nathan-ism,” the nonagenarian’s self-invented art form. Which allowed for some truly bizarre and troubling encounters (it was Hitler’s architect/armament procurer Speer himself who advised the 18-year-old private to “keep your eyes open and write what you see here”) to be transformed into a striking visual memoir, complete with counterintuitively, sunnily-colored drawings. By piecing together interviews with academics and historians (including the Hebrew Union College caretaker of the Hilu collection who stresses that Nathan uses art to “stand up for his memories” and even the DOJ’s former “Nazi hunter” Eli Rosenbaum) with the oftentimes controlling and pugnacious protagonist himself from his tiny LES apartment, a bigger picture emerges. Though not necessarily a clearer one; especially after Golod decides to hire a dogged researcher to verify Hilu’s incredible tales (many of which are likewise made visual through some wonderfully evocative animation). But then, as the passionate creative himself earnestly emphasizes, it’s important for the audience to understand that his life produces his art: life the way he sees it.

To read my interview visit Hammer to Nail.