
DATE: Wednesday, August 6, 1997             TAG: 9708060718

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE ABRAMS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  167 lines

``PAVEL'S CHARIOT''REGENT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE PRODUCING A HEARTFELT HOLOCAUST MOVIE THAT THEY HOPE WILL GAIN NATIONAL ATTENTION.

A FEW OF them gripped cups of coffee.

Others rubbed their eyes and stroked stubble-sharp chins. One woman sat in a director's chair - her head bobbing, her eyes flickering.

Tucked in a corner of Camp Pendleton in a garage, these student workers shuffled their sneakers across a sandy floor Thursday morning.

``Quiet, please,'' Mike Anderson barked through a bullhorn. ``Quiet on the set. Quiet, everyone.''

His boss, director Mike Stahl, a 27-year-old grad student at Regent University, leaned in toward a small monitor.

``That's it,'' he said. ``That's the shot.''

Action.

A man in a Nazi uniform surveyed the engine compartment of a green truck, adorned with swastikas. He didn't notice the Jewish prisoner cowering beneath the vehicle.

The Nazi closed the hood, strolled into the truck's cab and prepared to start the engine.

Cut. Reset. Do it again.

The previous 10 hours had been pretty much the same, these film students agreed.

That's why so many of the 25 crew members gulped caffeinated drinks and wore bags under their eyes.

But lost sleep is a fair sacrifice, they insist, considering the film they're making.

Months of editing and post-production work remain. Yet already, the buzz surrounding the film has been quite strong. There's even talk of the production showing at the Sundance Film Festival.

The story is ``Pavel's Chariot,'' a 14-page screenplay about a father's last effort to make for his son something special before being ushered off to a death camp.

The film chronicles the father's meticulous prison camp work on a toy under the cover of darkness. It follows the boy on a mystical dream flight with the toy.

When the boy returns, he awakens to watch as his father is being forced toward a death camp train, which the prisoners call Elijah's Chariot. The father runs in a desperate attempt to escape, but the boy hears gunshots and never sees his dad again.

The final scene shows a different boy and father in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The boy urges his dad to look at the same butterfly toy, which has become a display.

``It's a very personal story,'' said student Hunter Barnes, the author.

He acknowledged that some people might have a problem with a Christian telling a Jewish story. He simply hopes people will give him a chance.

``I was reluctant in the beginning, because I'm not Jewish,'' he said. ``I felt presumptuous. I wanted to be sensitive.''

Still, he said, the story embraces universal emotions and a memorable symbol in the hand-carved, wooden butterfly toy.

The original toy, with working wheels and wings, proved to be the inspiration for Barnes, 31. He saw it last year during a tour with his wife and baby daughter through the Holocaust Museum.

An unknown prisoner had secretly built the toy in a work camp. The inmates made toys for the SS, the story goes, but smuggled what they could to children.

Barnes said the toy made him appreciate the love he shares with his daughter, who was a baby at the time. He said it also prompted him to think of his own childhood.

Raised in California and Oregon by his mother, he longed for a closer relationship with his father. His parents were divorced.

``The butterfly always symbolized something I wanted - the idea that somebody would risk so much to make a toy for their child or a child,'' he said. ``You want to be that kind of parent to your child.''

Coincidentally, Stahl shares a similar story. The school's faculty picked the Philadelphia native to direct the film based on the strength of his previous work.

Like Barnes, he grew up in a divided family. He, too, draws power from telling the story of a man's labor of love for his boy.

``I've actually gone through a healing process with this film,'' he said.

Filming has taken the crew all around Hampton Roads, including to the home of Portsmouth Rabbi Arthur Steinberg and his wife, Kitty. They invited the crew to conduct two days of shooting for a Passover scene.

At first, the rabbi was said to be skeptical of the project, Barnes said. Once he read the script, however, he realized the story's power.

So, too, did Holocaust survivor Elizabeth Lacher of Chesapeake. The 80-year-old Hungarian said the script was more impressive because a non-Jew wrote it.

``That amazed me,'' she said. ``Too many people don't believe what happened.''

She spent 10 months in different camps. Her younger sister, her brother and her first husband all died.

When she read ``Pavel's Chariot,'' she remembered her own misery, she said.

``It's very realistic,'' she said. ``I really think that it will give the message to people what hap-pened.''

Exhausted from a night on the set, Lorene Wales, the executive producer, mustered enough energy to talk about the film's potentially bright future.

The project may secure a screening slot at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, she said. It won't compete there, but producers intend to enter it in several competitions.

In fact, Wales said, a Student Oscar isn't out of the question.

``It's such an important story,'' she said. ``I knew when I heard the pitch that this story has heart. There's a maturity that came with this script that you don't always get in student work.''

Wales is an adjunct faculty member at Regent. She previously worked in Hollywood doing production work for such companies as Disney.

The film is scheduled to debut next year in Hollywood at a Director's Guild screening. It also will be shown during Regent's annual spring festival at the Naro in Norfolk.

Hearing about awards and big audiences is the sort of pre-release endorsement that has the crew excited.

It means even more to director Stahl, who said he had to come to terms with his own German ancestry during filming. He says he's proud of his roots but feels fortunate to live in this time and place rather than World War II Germany.

``What if I was born then?'' he asked. ``That scares me. I've been fortunate. I'm blessed. If I was born then, would I have gone along with the popular thoughts?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

ABOVE LEFT: The story line for the film involves a man who makes

this toy...

ABOVE: Mark Eaton...

LEFT: Christian Devine, left....director Michael Stahl.

Photos

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Mark Eaton gets a makeup job from Suk-Yin Lai before an all-night

filming session of ``Pavel's Chariot'' at Camp Pendleton.

Graphic

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Name: Hunter Barnes

Age: 31