Inside Hana’s Suitcase

Northern California Premiere!
Canada, 2009, 75 minutes, Japanese, English with subtitles

Blending documentary and dramatic techniques, this moving film tells the story of two children who grew up in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia and the terrible events that they endured just because they happened to be born Jewish. Based on an internationally acclaimed book, it is also the present-day story of a group of Japanese children and their tenacious teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, and how they solved the mystery of Hana Brady, whose name was painted on an old battered suitcase that they received from Auschwitz. The film seamlessly transports us through history and back and forth across three continents, providing the viewer with a contemporary global perspective.

Unter Bauern: Saviors of the Night

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
4:15 pm
CineArts in Pleasant Hill

Bay Area Premiere!
Germany, 2008, 120 minutes, German with subtitles

Based on a true story, this emotionally piercing film tells of farmers who sheltered Jewish friends from the Nazis. It is 1943, and horse trader Menne Spiegel evades a round-up of the Jews in his hometown of Westphalia. Fearful his family will be deported to "the east," he turns to a neighbor, Heinrich Aschoff, who offers to hide Menne's wife and young daughter. Menne moves from farmer to farmer while both his "saviors" and his family live under constant threat of exposure from Gestapo officers and nosy neighbors.