SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL | SFJFF 2010

Screens with Surviving Hitler: A Love Story

Frank Stiefel’s portrait of his mother is both a loving tribute and a remarkable feat of compressed storytelling. As a deaf Jew in 1930s Germany, Ingelore Herz Honigstein was an outcast twice over. She narrates the harrowing events leading up to her immigration to America in speech and sign, revisiting past experiences with a startling degree of emotional clarity. Whether recounting small facts of life or pivotal moments like seeing New York for the first time, Ingelore’s expressivity is mesmerizing. Stiefel’s integration of archival footage and recreations, meanwhile, provides a potent visual context for his mother’s testimony.—Max Goldberg

Director