ABOUT THE FILM
Attempting to better understand her grandfather Avrom Sutzkever, Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon travels to Lithuania, using her grandfather’s diary to trace his early life in Vilna and his survival of the Holocaust. Sutzkever (1913–2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet—described by the New York Times as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust”—whose verse drew on his youth in Siberia and Vilna, his spiritual and material resistance during World War II, and his post-war life in the State of Israel. Kalderon, whose native language is Hebrew and must rely on translation of her grandfather’s work, is nevertheless determined to connect with what remains of the poet’s bygone world and confront the personal responsibility of preserving her grandfather’s literary legacy.

Woven into the documentary are family home videos, newly recorded interviews, and archival recordings, including Sutzkever’s testimony at the Nuremberg Trial. Recitation of his poetry and personal reflections on resisting Nazi forces as a partisan fighter reveal how Sutzkever tried to make sense of the Holocaust and its aftermath. As Kalderon strives to reconstruct the stories told by her grandfather, the film examines the limits of language, geography, and time.

ABOUT THE TALKBACK
Filmmaker Christa Whitney will join the Director of the Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, Joel Berkowitz, after the screening for a conversation about both the making of the film and the meaning and importance of documenting the life of Sutzkever both before, during, and after the war. They will contend with questions concerning Yiddish culture in Vilna, the preservation of Jewish literature in the midst of war, and the importance of highlighting post-war life for those who were lucky enough to survive.