Golda Maria

  • France
  • Documentary
  • 2020
  • 115 min.
  • Director(s): Patrick SOBELMAN, Hugo SOBELMAN
  • Producer(s): Muriel Meynard, Carine Ruszniewski

Synopsis

Before us sits an 84-year-old grandmother, positioned in her Parisian lounge opposite the amateur camera of her grandson Patrick Sobelman. It’s 29 October 1994 and over the course of three days, this woman will tell her life story, picking out recollections as they come to her, reaching back, more or less accurately, into the deepest recesses of her memory, prompted by the man in front of her, whose only aim was to preserve a family trace of this woman’s extraordinary existence, from the years spent in her native Poland to her youth in Berlin; from life in occupied France to that in the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, before her eventual return to “normal” life in the French capital. It’s a dramatic saga which is as captivating as it is moving, and which, almost 25 years later, the one-time videographer (who has since become a seasoned producer) chose to turn into a feature-length documentary, co-directed with his son Hugo Sobelman and unveiled in a Special Screening at the 70th Berlinale 2020. (Fabien Lemercier, Cineropa)

Book a Screening

Credits

Director(s)

Patrick SOBELMAN, Hugo SOBELMAN

Producer(s)

Muriel Meynard, Carine Ruszniewski

Script

Hugo Sobelman, Patrick Sobelman

Cinematography

Patrick Sobelman

Editor

Hugo Sobelman

Original Language

French

Subtitles

English

Sound designer

Najib El Yafi

World Sales

MK2

Festival Highlights

  • WINNER

    Artistic Achievement in Holocaust-related Film
    Jerusalem International Film Festival
    2020

Berlinale, Germany, Official Selection, 2020

Cinéma du Réel, France, Official Selection, 2020

FIF Namur International Film Festival, France, Official Selection, 2020

Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel, 2020

Reviews

  • "“Enlightening. A genuine, real and raw glimpse into the power of humanity and our innate ability for survival which is both moving and inspirational.”"
    - Jonathan Marshall - The Upcoming
  • "“A testimony of inestimable human and historical value in memory of a woman who experienced a dramatically exceptional fate ... Inevitably elicits great emotion.”"
    - Fabien Lemercier - Cineuropa