HANNAH Senesh was one brave woman. In 1944, Senesh, a diarist-poet, left the safety of Palestine, where she was part of a kibbutz, to parachute behind enemy lines in a failed mission to rescue Jews in her homeland, Hungary.
She was captured, tortured and executed (at age 23) by the Nazis. Considered a modern-day Joan of Arc in Israel, Senesh is relatively unknown elsewhere.
Roberta Grossman’s documentary “Blessed Is the Match” tries to correct that oversight but is only partly successful.
Grossman uses archival material, interviews and ill-advised re-creations to tell the story.
Actress Joan Allen is on hand to voice correspondence by Senesh’s mother, Catherine, who for a while was in the same Hungarian prison as her daughter.
“Blessed Is the Match” – which gets its name from one of Hannah Senesh’s poems – tells us just about everything we might want to know about her – except why she did what she did. That important information will have to wait for another film.
Running time: 86 minutes. Not rated (Holocaust atrocities). At the Sunshine, Houston Street near First Avenue.