My 100 Children Israel, 2003, 68 minutes, English, Hebrew & Polish with English subtitles Public Exhibition Formats: DigiBeta, DVD
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Awards
WINNER Best Documentary, Israeli Film Academy
WINNER Best Documentary, Jewish Experience, Jerusalem International Film Festival
Festival Screenings
Zagreb Jewish Film Festival
Jewishfilm.2010 NCJF Annual Film Festival
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Rochester Film Festival
Bergen County Jewish Film Festival
Rutgers Jewish Film Festival
Toronto Jewish Film Festival
Pacific Jewish Film Festival
Denver Jewish Film Festival
Orange County Jewish Film Festival
Jerusalem International Film Festival
Short Synopsis
When Lena Kuchlar discovered dozens of orphaned Jewish children in Krakow after WWII, she employed the progressive psychiatric methods of Janusz Korczak and slowly brought these damaged kids back to life. Antisemitic attacks in 1949 forced her to smuggle the children out of Poland to France and later to Israel. Based on Küchlar’s best-selling autobiography, the film includes moving interviews with her “children.”
Long Synopsis
In the spring of 1945, Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor Lena Kuchlar a young teacher and physiologist, discovered dozens of orphaned Jewish children (ages 3-15) holed up the Jewish Committee Center in Krakow. Inspired by the teachings of Janusz Korczak and employing progressive psychiatric methods, she slowly brought these damaged children back to life. The orphanage she established in Zakopane, Poland, fell pray to antisemitic attacks and in 1949 she smuggled the children out of Poland, first to France and eventually to Israel, to Schiller Kibbutz.
My 100 Children is based on Kuchlar’s best selling, watershed 1959 autobiography. The book was translated into fourteen languages and Kuchlar became a minor celebrity in Israel, appearing on television and throughout the country. My 100 Children includes moving interviews with Kuchlar’s own daughter and many of Kuchlar’s “children” who recall the dramatic events.
Critical Acclaim
“Definitive version of the inspiring story of Lena Kuchlar … absorbing…no shortage of poignant and dramatic moments.” – Variety
"Lena Kuchlar Silverman knew that all you need is love. At the end of World War II, this extraordinary Polish Jewish woman, who had studied psychology, gathered 100 Jewish orphan children in Krakow--some who had been in camps and some who were hidden--and loved them back to life. This inspiring documentary is based on her book My 100 Children and features footage of Kuchlar (who died in 1987) and contemporary interviews with children she saved. Kuchlar’s daughter Shiri and some of the hundred children (including one who was aided as a young girl by the late Pope John Paul II) journey to Warsaw in 2001 to visit the Jewish community archives and then meet for a reunion in Israel. The survivors, now in their sixties and seventies, reveal their real names (Kuchlar’s book used aliases) and share their love for the egalitarian, affectionate woman who welcomed them with open arms to the orphanage in Zakopane, Poland. Kuchlar, who fled with the children to France and then ultimately to Israel in the face of rising post-war anti-Semitism, won over 100 cynical hearts and in the process healed herself." – San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Credits
Directors: Amalia Margolin & Oshra Schwartz
Produced: Moshe Danon
Executive Producer: Gaby Rosenberg
Interviewees: Nachum Bogner, Ella Brown, Yulek Goldman, Yossi Laor, Lillian Ronnen,
Nathan Schacht, Dana Shachar, Max Shuv, Shira Toren Testa, Edith Zirrer
Narrator: Hagit Dasberg
Camera: Yoram Millo
Editor: Einat Glasser-Zarhin
Music: Jonathan Bar-Giora
A JCS production in association with New Foundation for Cinema & Television and Israel's 2nd Channel
Downloads
Variety Review (PDF)
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