Seite - 108 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 04/01

108 | Stefanie Knauss www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 107–109 acknowledges the re-creative power of film, yet at a critical distance because of her Jewish theological and cultural commitments (20). While the author lays out this interpretative methodology of inverted midrash and the theoretical un- derpinnings of her theological engagement with secular films in the introduc- tion, one would have wished for an occasional return to these questions in the following chapters as well, in which the film analyses and theological reflections would have provided rich opportunities for further meta-reflections. Given these methodological decisions, the chapters in the book generally move from a close reading of a filmic mashal to the equally close textual discus- sion of the element from the Jewish tradition that the film is taken to elucidate, drawing on the full range of the tradition from biblical texts to rabbinical reflec- tions to modern theology and philosophy, with additional references to nov- els or poems, showcasing the rich complexity of Jewish culture. Each chapter focuses on a film and a central theme, often also in close relation to a specific figure, be it from the biblical text or a thinker in the tradition. Thus, the first chapter looks at Peter Weir’s film The Truman Show (US 1998), a film about a man who is unknowingly the protagonist of a reality TV show. Zierler’s reading of the film focuses on the theme of truth, Truman/true-man’s quest for the truth about himself and his life, and his dismantling of the false idol of the show’s producer. Inspired by this analysis, she makes her theological move, a reflection on the discovery of God’s truth. In doing so, the author turns to the book of Jonah, the sixteenth-century Midrash Yonah and the poetic retelling of Jonah’s story by Canadian poet A. M. Klein, and parallels Truman’s discovery of truth and reality with Jonah’s discovery of God as a compassionate and gracious God, attributes that in the Hebrew Bible are often paired with truth. As in the film so also in the Jewish tradition, truth is seen as inhering in relationships, both among humans and between humans and God. A further connection between the film and the book of Jonah is their common genre of comedy, which aims at revealing hidden truths, exposing the limitations of knowledge, and opening up moments of salvation. As Zierler points out, the book of Jonah is the last of the Yom Kippur readings, when the listeners are already light-headed from fasting. Listening to the reading, they are jolted into smiling discoveries about themselves and God by the discrepancies of Jonah’s comic lamenting of God’s graciousness towards the people of Niniveh while enjoying God’s kindness him- self, his foibles and misfortunes. The following chapters, all of which can also be read independently, look at such films as Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, US 1999), analyzing its com- plex fabric of interconnected story lines as a film that deepens the understand- ing of Judaism as confession and redemption, with the theological reflection focusing on the figure of Judah. The analysis of The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, UK/US/AU 2010), with its story of the Duke of York’s (Bertie) overcoming of his