2017 PS Film Festival
film synopsis
Born in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp in 1945, Izak Szewelwicz was sent for adoption to Israel, where he grew up and raised a family. This moving and powerful documentary follows Izak on his lifelong quest to fill in the puzzle pieces of his family's history in the shadow of the Holocaust. The search leads to some startling revelations, such as the discovery that he had a brother, Shep, who was also given up for adoption and grew up in Canada. The brothers' remarkable, poignant reunion after six decades apart, may solve one mystery, but it opens the door on others. When the two go to see their birth mother, Aida, in a Quebec nursing home, the plot thickens, and the answers they seek may prove to be the deepest mystery of all.
"The Holocaust is still not the stuff of history... Our species has not remotely lost the capacity to commit that kind of atrocity again. Following just one thread in the human weave that was snapped the last time is a reminder of the cost of descending into the same madness again." Jeffrey Kluger, Time
Winner: Audience Award, Docaviv
film details
guests in attendance
Alon Schwarz – Director (January 9 & 10 only)