{"id":22874,"date":"2015-04-06T13:35:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=22874"},"modified":"2015-04-06T13:36:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:36:54","slug":"germanwings-tragedy-eerily-echoes-damian-szifrons-wild-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/germanwings-tragedy-eerily-echoes-damian-szifrons-wild-tales\/","title":{"rendered":"Germanwings tragedy eerily echoes Damian Szifron’s ‘Wild Tales’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DIEGO MELAMED<\/p>\n

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) \u2014The news that the mentally disturbed pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 intentionally crashed the plane into a mountainside has horrified people all over the world.<\/p>\n

But for those who\u2019ve seen \u201cWild Tales,\u201d an Argentinian film that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards this year, the news was particularly chilling. That\u2019s because the tragedy was a virtual reenactment of “Pasternak,” the\u00a0opening segment in the film, in which a pilot with unresolved psychological issues locks himself in the cockpit and crashes a plane full of passengers.<\/p>\n

The dark and violent film, whose motto is \u201cwe can all lose control,\u201d consists of six independent segments, many featuring Jewish characters and names taken from Buenos Aires director\u00a0Damian Szifron\u2019<\/a>s life.<\/p>\n

In \u201cWild Tales,\u201d unlike on the Germanwings flight, the pilot, named Gabriel Pasternak, knows all\u00a0the passengers on the plane and crashes the aircraft into his parents\u2019 house, rather than a mountain, in an act of revenge. The character\u2019s grievances include being cheated on by his girlfriend, fired from his company, held back\u00a0in elementary school and bullied as a child. The real Gabriel Pasternak who inspired the name, but not the personality, of the fictional character was someone Szifron, 39, knew from ORT high school, where he studied media production.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0United Kingdom<\/a>\u00a0in particular, where \u201cWild Tales\u201d was just released last week, many critics and viewers are commenting on the parallels between the Germanwings tragedy and \u201cPasternak,\u201d On Twitter and in\u00a0some media outlets<\/a>, some have\u00a0speculated that Andreas Lubitz, the German pilot, saw \u201cWild Tales\u201d and was inspired by it.<\/p>\n

It’s terrible but I can’t read about the Germanwings plane crash\/suicidal pilot without thinking about the opening segment of WILD TALES.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg)\u00a0April 1, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inspiramos al mundo. (?)\u00a0#WildTales<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ Germanwings Co-Pilot Deliberately Crashed Airbus Jet, French Prosecutor Says\u00a0http:\/\/t.co\/YDZF2fqDaO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ana (@Annitens)\u00a0March 26, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Germanwings connection spurred the film\u2019s producers to print the following\u00a0disclaimer<\/a>\u00a0on the film\u2019s website, where viewers can pay to stream the film:\u00a0\u201cFollowing the Germanwings flight incident on Tuesday 24th March, please be aware that Wild Tales features a sequence that some customers might find disturbing.\u201d The disclaimer is also being posted outside some theaters where\u00a0the film is showing.<\/p>\n

Even before the Germanwings crash, Argentine media outlet Clarin was finding\u00a0many real-life parallels to \u201cWild Tales” and published a list of\u00a010 such incidents<\/a><\/p>\n

Contacted by JTA, Szifron\u2019s publicist said the filmmaker\u00a0preferred not to comment about the Germanwings-\u201dWild Tales\u201d parallels.<\/p>\n

You can watch a clip from the “Pasternak” segment here<\/a>. (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cNURIZWLm1M<\/a>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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