Cinema: Walton's Ghetto

LIES MY FATHER TOLD ME Directed by JAN KADAR Screenplay by TED ALLAN

The setting is a Montreal ghetto, around 1925. The protagonist is an extraordinarily appealing little boy named David (Jeffrey Lynas). Struggling for possession of his young mind are his father (Len Birman) and his grandfather (Yossi Yadin). The former is a hustler, determined to abandon traditional Jewish ways and invent his way upward (creaseless pants, expandable cuff links−so you can roll up your sleeves without unlinking them). The latter is a sweet-spirited, loving junk dealer, who is equally determined to imbue David with the belief that an Orthodox...