DOXA Opening film: Inside Hana’s Suitcase

I had never been to the DOXA Documentary Film Festival before, even though it’s been around for over 10 years now. I entered a Georgia Straight contest to win tickets to the opening film, Inside Hana’s Suitcase, and was lucky enough to win two tickets.

Inside Hana’s Suitcase is a beautiful Canadian documentary that weaves in elements of dramatization, storytelling and mystery. Funded by Rogers and CBC through the Theatrical Documentary fund, Larry Weinstein’s retelling of the story behind the storybook of the same title, is truly a masterpiece of a memoir.

The film began with Weinstein’s awareness of Karen Levine’s children’s storybook, which was based on the true story of Tokyo Holocaust Education Director Fumiko Ishioka’s finding of a suitcase that appeared to belong to a girl named Hana Brady, a prisoner during the Holocaust in Terezin. The suitcase brings Ishioka as far as Germany to research the story of the girl behind the suitcase, and she discovers that Hana’s brother, George, is still alive and lives in Toronto, Canada. Both Hana’s story during the war and Ishioka’s story of how far the suitcase story went is told by children all over the world, and interviews with George and his niece Lara Hana Brady, ground the story in reality. Re-enactments of George and Hana’s experiences of losing their family members and living through the war offer an emotional impact to this harrowing – but truly amazing story of family, hardship, survival, and desire for global peace.

I was fortunate to have seen George Brady in person after the film, who told yet more personal and funny anecdotes for us. He is really as amiable as he appears in the film and it is amazing how the suitcase story continues to bring him to places around the world. Though he says in the film that he never wanted to put his family through the pain that he experienced during the war, Ishioka’s persistence in finding him and about Hana has provided him a sense of closure from the guilt and has allowed him to share his story internationally. George has since lived a successful life in Toronto with children and grandchildren who his late sister and parents would be proud of.

The DOXA festival runs until May 31 at various locations. Info at www.doxafestival.ca.