Prisoner of Her Past (2010)

Sonia Reich- who survived the Holocaust as a child by running and hiding - suddenly believes that she is being hunted again, 60 years later. Prisoner of Her Past is the story of a woman who... See full summary »

Director:

Gordon Quinn

Storyline

Sonia Reich- who survived the Holocaust as a child by running and hiding - suddenly believes that she is being hunted again, 60 years later. Prisoner of Her Past is the story of a woman who appeared to be a normal, self-sufficient adult until she ran out of her house in the middle of the night, convinced that someone was trying "to put a bullet in [her] head." In effect, Sonia was re-enacting the traumatic events of her lost childhood. Separated from her family, she was deprived of 5 years of adolescence, as she fled from the Nazis during the Second World War. During that time, we know that her mother and most of her extended family were killed in mass executions. We also know that she was starving, frostbitten, constantly endangered and, as one psychiatrist described it, "a jungle child." What she witnessed and how she survived, we may never know. She refuses to discuss her past. Prisoner of Her Past is a documentary film that tells the story of Sonia and her son, Chicago Tribune ...

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Taglines:

Sixty years after the war, a survivor is running and hiding again...

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Ukrainian Polish

Release Date:

12 February 2010 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chicago Tribune, The, Kartemquin Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Gripping

For many years, Howard Reich has been the superlative jazz critic and writer for the Chicago Tribune. This documentary reveals his incredible personal history as a second-generation member of a family of Ukranian Jewish Holocaust survivors. The film focuses mainly on his elderly mother, who after years of uneventful life in the Chicago area, resisting Mr. Reich's and his sister's attempts to talk about her experiences, suddenly begins to "act out" her wartime traumas. His mother is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Mr. Reich, in efforts to find out what actually happened to his mother, ends up locating long-lost and never-seen relatives both in the US and in Europe, with both positive and disturbing results. At only one hour long, this is an engrossing and fascinating true-life detective story.