He's the most compelling character in my life, and he leads this reclusive, sad existence, not talking to others for days at a time, spending his day alone in this emotional poverty. It's been the source of exasperation for me, and for a long time I've tried to change him. Berliner's quirky, epic journey eventually leads to Poland, where the filmmaker finds that the Holocaust erased all but trace material about his family. The film, for example, is punctuated with recurring footage of a boxing match, a clever, resonant reminder of Berliner's combative relationship with his father. New York Film Festival director Richard Pena, asked to locate a cinematic reference point for Nobody's Business , suggested Citizen Kane , another innovative film that explored the conflicts and struggles that come with belonging to a family.
Most documentaries end up planting the camera and waiting for something to happen.
With Berliner, one sees a much more playful, essayistic thought process at work. Even with their experimental trappings, Berliner's works remain accessible. The filmmaker spent much of 1997 traveling to festivals throughout North American and Europe with Nobody's Business , and at every stop, he said, the audiences demonstrated their appreciation. It seems to transcend gender and religion, and cultural, social, and national demographics. I guess, if you peel away the layers, you take it down to the very fact that everyone has a father, so everyone has a frame of reference for the film.