The Woman From Hamburg — Claims Conference Film Grants

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In 1943, Regina, a young Jewish woman, takes shelter in the closet of a Polish couple, Barbara and Jan. Regina and Barbara are forced to make impossible sacrifices to stay alive, altering two generations of women’s lives forever.

Synopsis

In 1943, Regina, a young Jewish woman, has lost her entire family and is rescued by a young childless couple, Jan and Barbara and given shelter in their closet. Over time, Regina grows close with the couple, and Barbara and she are forced to make sacrifices to stay alive. Many years later, Helusia, a descendant of Regina’s, embarks on a quest and makes a discovery that upends the lives of all involved.

About the Director

Michael Masarof is a writer and director whose debut feature film First Love was called “intimate in both shooting style and script” by the LA Times. Michael received his MFA in Film Directing from New York University’s Graduate film program at the Tisch School of The Arts, where he was the recipient of the Jane Rosenthal Scholarship and the Warner Bros. Production Grant. Michael finished his BA in 2001 at American University. During his BA studies he also attended the prestigious FAMU film school in Prague, completing the Czech Language short film Vytah. After university Michael spent two years in film production, working under such industry luminaries as Al Maysles, Steven Daldry, Walter Salles, and Sydney Pollack, on his last narrative film The Interpreter. Michael’s 2007 short film You Should Have The Body won the first place prize at the International Munich Festival of Film Schools and screened as a special presentation at the 2008 Berlinale. In 2008 Michael was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus of Scarsdale High School. He has worked at Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox film studios and in 2019 his first feature film First Love was released on Amazon and other streaming platforms.

Artistic Statement

In 2006 when I was at the NYU MFA film program I read a short story by the Polish writer Hanna Krall. It embodied elements that I think make a great story: It was mysterious in its details but direct in its language, unsentimental in its tone, to be almost darkly comic, and of course it was cinematic. 15 years later the story never escaped my mind, and a prompt by The Claims Conference led me to adapt it into a film. The story which is based on a true account is a portrait of grief and trauma that I had not seen translated on the film screen, specifically when it came to Holocaust stories. A female focused story with a strong protagonist dealing with psychological and emotional issues with truth and honesty. That does not put a silver lining on tragedy. It focuses on the inner lives of the characters and their intergenerational trauma. It depicts women, not as sexual beings who are exploited, but as human beings that need to make choices to survive. These choices ripple through their whole lives. Hanna Krall said, “My work as a reporter has taught me that logical stories, without riddles and holes in them, in which everything is obvious, tend to be untrue. And things that cannot be explained in any fashion really do happen.” As a filmmaker this is the space where I want to work and tell my stories, to help bring a crack of light into the darkness.