A haunting melody bridges a daughter's fractured life across continents and war

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In Sally Potter's 2000 drama The Man Who Cried, a young Jewish girl named Fegele is separated from her father during a 1927 pogrom. Renamed Suzie in Britain, she carries only a photograph and a song, eventually searching for her lost parent amidst the encroaching shadows of World War II.

The narrative follows Fegele, later Suzie, as she navigates a world defined by displacement and the looming threat of the Nazi regime. After being uprooted from her Russian village, she finds herself in Paris, working in a singing troupe alongside an older dancer named Lola. The film weaves together the lives of these women with those of an Italian opera singer, Dante, and a Romani horseman, Cesar. The central motif is the aria Je Crois Entendre Encore, which serves as a poignant link between Suzie and her father, who sang it to her before his departure for America.

The film explores themes of identity and betrayal as the characters face the political realities of the era. Dante, an ardent supporter of Mussolini, eventually turns on Suzie, exposing her Jewish heritage to German officers. Despite the personal risks, Suzie finds solace in her connection with Cesar, though she is ultimately forced to flee Paris as the Nazis occupy the city. Her journey concludes in Hollywood, where she finally tracks down her father, now a successful studio head who had long assumed his family perished in the village attack.

While the film features a notable cast including Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, and Johnny Depp, it received a mixed critical reception upon its release. Critics often described the storyline as overwrought, resulting in a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 40 out of 100 on Metacritic. Nevertheless, the production earned recognition for its artistic elements, including a National Board of Review award for Cate Blanchett and a Golden Lion nomination for director Sally Potter at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. The film also marked the final project for acclaimed cinematographer Sacha Vierny.

The musical score, composed by Osvaldo Golijov and released in 2001, remains a significant component of the work. The singing voices for the lead characters were provided by professionals, including Salvatore Licitra and Iva Bittova, grounding the emotional climax of the film in the aria that started the journey. The final scene, where Suzie sings to her dying father in Yiddish, serves as the emotional resolution to a life defined by the trauma of separation and the persistence of memory.

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