Cinema Society

INSIDE HANA'S SUITCASE

Average
Rating

3.8

Tuesday, April 13, 2010, AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres

Invited Guest: Larry Weinstein, Director

TUESDAY, APRIL 13

7:00PM: Special Presentation (Auditorium 4 Only)

7:10PM: Introduction (Auditorium 4)

7:20PM: Introduction (Auditorium 5)

7:30PM: INSIDE HANA’S SUITCASE

Discussion will follow screening in Auditorium 4

AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres

The delivery of a battered suitcase to Fumiko Ishioka at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum begins the true-life mystery that became the subject of Karen Levineʼs best-selling book Hanaʼs Suitcase. The suitcase came from the Auschwitz Museum and had Hana Bradyʼs name painted on it.

Larry Weinsteinʼs masterful film follows Fumikoʼs search to discover the details of Hanaʼs life, which leads to the discovery of her brother George in Toronto. As small children they had been sent to Thereisenstadt for being Jewish after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. A superb musical score by Alexina Louie and Alex Pauk, coupled with dramatic reenactments stunningly shot by Horst Zeidler, catches us by the heart to invoke the tragedy of the times.

The voices of children from Japan, Canada, and the Czech Republic telling Hanaʼs story are woven around the drama, along with Georgeʼs memories and Fumikoʼs quest, to create a film of astonishing power and hope.

Running Time: 88 Minutes Not Rated

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19-Apr-10: DD - Rating: 4

Please get this movie into the classrooms! Oh to have such a documentary when I was in school!

14-Apr-10: Mroe - Rating: 4

Though I know too often the statement "not another Holocaust movie?" will be used when they hear the theme of this film, I really hope as a society we never get so desensitized to this subject that we don't keep watching and listening. Of the many experiences I had at the P.S.F.F. one was that there are a lot of Holocaust films but many are done from various perspectives and though the documentary is a genre one would find most trusting there is still so much to learn from dramas that can be enlightening as well. In the case of this film it was such a personal film for one person (George) but we also learned about what good teachers look like, how other cultures/countries view the Holocaust and that this was and still is a horrible, horrific and unfathomable time in the world's history. Maybe if we stopped being so terrible to each other the theme of these films wouldn't have to be made so often.

14-Apr-10: Dennis - Rating: 4

Fumiko is the type of person that I wish there were more of in this world, and to deliver this information to children will hopefully give them the foundation to live a life where not only do they not cave in to intolerance and the complacency of society to not react. At one point early on in the film, and then through it's completion, reflected on the correlation of the Holocaust and present situation of gay people in Africa. I also correlated on the role/ reaction of the Catholic Church and "upstanding citizens" in both situations, and I am deeply disturbed...this is what good cinema should do, reflect and think!

14-Apr-10: Georgi - Rating: 2

Wish we could have a rating for content and one for quality. This was a terrific educational tool. Wish all kids could see it in class. Terrific teachers. As a movie it didn't totally hold together for me but it was a fascinating way to engage people who wouldn't necessarily be drawn into the holocaust conscienciousness. You gotta love the two (Canadian?) tween girls who totally got it and talked over each other like an old married couple.

14-Apr-10: pb - Rating: 5

Beautifully done in every way. Sensitive, haunting, moving. Not just another Holocaust film. The children are the stars.

With teachers like Fumiko there is hope.