But not before her memories carry the audience back almost a half-century. At the end of World War II, Antonia returns to the Dutch village of her birth with her teenage daughter Danielle. Actually, Antonia, played by the wondrous Willeke van Ammelrooy, is the real liberator. It's unclear whether she's divorced, a widow or an unwed mother, but this wise woman doesn't need a man to run her farm or dominate her life. That does not mean, of course, that Antonia has no use for the opposite sex.
Love arrives unforeseen, and lovemaking is natural.
For four years he traveled between Paris and Sarajevo, writing impassioned articles about the tragedy that was unfolding and railing against the impotence of the Western powers. During that tumultuous time, as he met frequently with Bosnian and French leaders, he kept a journal. Most striking is Levy's gift for observation, whether he's describing Sarajevans under sniper fire or bodies in the city's morgue. The Algerian-born author, who was a Maoist before turning against Marxism, was disillusioned once again by the Balkans conflict. Some folks who lived under communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe look back nostalgically on what now seems to them like the good old days.