Hana's Suitcase“Inside Hana’s Suitcase” will move anyone and everyone. The film mixes documentary with narrative techniques to tell the true-life story of Hana Brady, a girl who was killed during the Holocaust.

The film was inspired by the 2002 bestselling book Hana’s Suitcase. It retraces a series of coincidences that lead Tokyo school teacher Fumiko Ishioka, to the suitcase that belonged to a Czech Jewish girl, Hana Brady.

Ishioka, who also happens to be the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Centre, receives the suitcase with only two bits of information on Hana: her date of birth and the fact that she was an orphan by the time of her wartime capture. It doesn’t take long for the teacher to become emotionally invested in discovering Hana’s story, an investment she shares with her students. After intense research, she discovers that Hana’s brother George, a Holocaust survivor and thriving grandfather who lives in Toronto, is still alive.

Don’t let the documentary aspect turn you away from seeing this movie because it’s anything but dry. Director Larry Weinstein does a fantastic job of combining interviews with George and surviving friends and family with stunning re-enactment footage of Hana and George as kids. The two types of storytelling mesh together so well that sometimes they literally blend (a scene involving Ishioka and a drawing by Hana is simply amazing and unique).

But perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this movie is its narration. Forget about the stereotypical monotone voice that narrates many documentaries, this one is told by children. And the interest these kids have in Hana definitely adds to the movie. It’s rare to find a kid-friendly documentary that a) captures children’s attention and b) informs them. This one does both.

For Ishioka, the purpose of teaching her students about the Holocaust was to show what can happen when prejudice and hatred are taken too far. The movie does a great job of capturing this. Take the advice of one of the schoolgirls in the documentary. She simply says, “we need to learn from this story” — advice worth taking.

andPOP Rating - 3.5 stars






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