Left Luggage

Left Luggage is a 1998 Dutch film directed by Jeroen Krabbé. Plot While escaping Nazis during World War II, a Jewish man buries in the ground two suitcases full of things dear to his heart. The war deprived him of his family and afterwards he endlessly turns over the soil of Antwerp to find the suitcases. It's an obsessive compulsion. He keeps checking old maps and keeps digging, trying to find what he lost. His daughter Chaya is a beautiful, modern girl looking for a part-time job. She finds a place as a nanny in a strictly observant Hasidic family with many children, although her secular manners clearly fly in the face of their beliefs. One of the reasons she is accepted is that the mother of the family is absolutely overburdened by the household, so Chaya stays despite the resistance of the father, who is normally the indisputable authority in the family. She develops a special bond with the youngest of the boys, four-year-old Simcha, who seems incapable of speaking. While walking in the park she encourages him to speak and it appears that, after some coaching from Chaya (who needs coaching herself), during the upcoming Passover Seder Simcha will be able to chant the section of the Haggadah usually reserved for the youngest speaking participant - the Four Questions. At first, Simcha's nerves prevent him from chanting, and his brothers begin to chant instead. Simcha finally lifts his voice. The entire family, including Chaya, applauds his efforts, but his judgmental father does not recognize this great step but, instead, criticizes the boy for a mistake. Chaya confronts the father and, in the process, discovers his own pain as a Holocaust survivor and begins to understand her own parents' grief.