SCREENINGS

SYNOPSIS

Miss Holocaust Survivor follows the lives of Rita (85) and Tova (95), residents of Haifa (Israel) and Holocaust survivors, as they embark on a beauty pageant for women who survived the Holocaust, where they are judged not on exterior beauty, but on the beauty they emanate from within and the stories they tell about survival.
Rita survived the Holocaust by spending 19 months in a dark pit underneath a stable with her family. During that same time Tova manage to survive three concentration camps, yet lost large parts of her family to the Nazi murder machine. Both women managed to build families and lead interesting, independent lives despite the traumas hidden below the surface. In addition to shedding light on Tova’s and Rita’s life stories and their approach to ‘celebrating life,’ the film prompts viewers to question the validity of a beauty pageant, and ultimately, to ponder the question of who holds the authority to pass judgment and shape the collective memory of the Holocaust and its survivors.

Radek Wegrzyn

Biography

Radek Wegrzyn was born in 1977 in Gdansk, Poland. After studying North American Studies, Media Studies and Political Science in Bonn, he completed the film directing course at the Konrad Wolf Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Wegrzyn made his debut as a director and screenwriter in German cinemas in 2012 with the tragicomedy SOMMER AUF DEM LAND. Radek regularly teaches master classes in storytelling and screenwriting at various locations, including Hanover, Berlin, Milan and in Maine. In 2017, he founded the production company Magical Realist together with his long-time creative partner Roberto Gagnor.

Filmography

Sommer auf dem Land (2011), Violinissimo (2012), Die Schule auf dem Zauberberg (2018), Miss Holocaust Survivor (2023)