Published: 20 October, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

HOW to Re-Establish A Vodka Empire is a documentary as warm, soothing and fun as necking a bottle of the aforementioned spirit itself.

Dan and Hilary Edelstyn’s film starts with Dan discovering a memoir in his mother’s attic that traced his grandmother Maroussia Zorokovich’s story from pre-revolution Ukraine when her family were the owners of a sugar factory and a Vodka distillery, through to them fleeing to England and then finally settling in Belfast.

Dan and Hilary decided to not only make a film about his grandmother’s adventures – told partly through Hilary’s incredible animation and artwork – but to see if they could set up a vodka import business using the product from the factory his grandparents owned before global politics sent them packing.

We watch as he discovers his grandmother’s life story – her tale is the personification of so many untold stories of the Jewish diaspora.

Little touches raise the bar: the couple become incredibly loveable as we watch Hilary have a baby while Dan is trying his best to become a booze importer.  

Jonathan Safran Foer did a similar trip to Ukraine to find out his grandmother’s roots: he is an author, not a farmer, while Dan is a film-maker.

This is a generational shift among the Jewish community, from workers and entrepreneurs to intellectuals, which this film unconsciously points out.