“Like so many children of Holocaust survivors, Lily Brett was haunted by her parent’s suffering, and by the ghosts of the family she would never know – the ones who had perished in the ghettoes or the death camps.   She was consumed by a desire to visit the places her parents had lived and to share and perhaps understand what they had endured.”

Ripley is a masterpiece of noir vérité. Some have complained about the excruciatingly detailed and pedestrian pace at which Ripley’s crimes and their aftermath are depicted, but that is the whole point.  We are made to witness all the trouble Ripley goes to and to endure the tensions and uncertainties he experiences.  We are drawn into his cunning high-stakes game to the extent that we almost can’t help hoping he gets away with it!