Stereotypes may be in the eye of the beholder. At least, that just might be the case in how a character in the French animated film Azur and Asmar, which was screened at the Seattle International Film Festival’s SIFF Theater at the Seattle Center last month, is perceived.
A take on the “twin sons of a different mother” theme, the film follows the story of a blue-eyed, Aryan-looking boy and his “brother,” a dark-skinned, possibly Middle Eastern boy.
The story purports to tell how we can all live together despite the differences of culture, color and creed.
The film is drawn with richly colored art with a Persian flair and characters drawn with fine features. Then along comes Crapoux, who to the sensitive eye looks like every stereotype of Jewry foisted upon the world by the propaganda machine of Hitler’s Third Reich. He is crudely drawn, with a hook nose, hunched back, and is a character who takes advantage of others for personal financial gain.
In this case, those sensitive eyes were embodied in Ruvane Richman, his wife, Lisa ThornhallRichman, and their 8-year-old daughter Phoenix.
“It was apparent to me right away that this was a negative stereotype of a Jew, like those used by the Nazis,” said Richman, whose parents and other family members survived the Holocaust.
For ThornhallRichman, who converted to Judaism, the realization was not as instantaneous, but still she recognized the character traits quite quickly — she is a Ph.D candidate studying the communication of stereotypes in children’s literature.
“I am cognizant of how “˜color-blindness’ can be used to mask stereotypes,” she said. “But what really struck me in this film was the message that Christians and Islamic people could get along, but that Jews are again marginalized.”
In the film, as the characters find life-mates, Crapoux dreams of a life with a princess — who laughs in his face.
“It just sent the message that we live outside the mainstream,” ThornhallRichman said.
After seeing the film, the family contacted the Seattle International Film Festival and the Seattle Art Museum. SIFF operates the theater and the art museum was advertised as sponsoring the film, though the museum’s sponsorship was a printing error. The art museum had no part in the showing. But a reply to Richman’s and ThornhallRichman’s concerns came from Deborah Person, the managing director of SIFF.
She partly agreed with Ruvane and Lisa.
“I can absolutely see what you saw in the physical representation of Crapaux [sic] — his glasses, nose, and stooped posture were all characteristics used by the Nazis in their heinous anti-Semitic propaganda,” she said in her e-mail reply to the couple.
But beyond that, she said that she did not see in the film what Ruvane and Lisa saw.
“He reminded me of the ugly American, complaining about the food, the architecture, the sights and sounds — none of it being like home. And yet, as is so often the case in the film, nothing is as it appears — midway through the story he admits that he loves this town and he removes those large glasses to reveal the one physical characteristic that is treated initially with fear and suspicion by the people in this land — blue eyes — a characteristic he shares with Azur. I have a very hard time seeing the filmmaker meaning to portray Crapaux as Jewish. Without knowing the director’s intentions, and taking into account all the messages of inclusion in the film, I can only conclude that this must have been an unintentional reference,” she wrote.
Richman is not so sure about the unintentional nature of that reference.
“I have to wonder what the reaction would have been if instead of being a stereotype of a Jew, Crapaux had been portrayed as black,” he said. “Would they have so willingly shown this film?”
Person told JTNews she would invite any members of the Jewish community concerned about the film to see it themselves.
A question of stereotypes
