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Inside Hana's Suitcase

Play trailer Poster for Inside Hana's Suitcase 2009 1h 28m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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77% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Two children grow up in Czechoslovakia and endure extreme hardships for being Jewish.

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Inside Hana's Suitcase

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter Documentary about young children learning the horrors of the Holocaust feels like an elaborate study aid. Apr 19, 2012 Full Review Nicolas Rapold New York Times It would be odd not to feel something about Hana and the Brady family, but "Inside Hana's Suitcase" feels more like a historical teaching aid than like a great movie. Rated: 2.5/5 Apr 17, 2012 Full Review Nick Schager Village Voice A documentary saga of heartbreaking concentration-camp horrors, Inside Hana's Suitcase attempts to preserve Holocaust memories through frustratingly fractured means. Apr 17, 2012 Full Review Brian D. Johnson Maclean's Magazine It's an amazing story, a tragedy that's explored with great sensitivity, and and transformed by the magic of hindsight. Aug 23, 2019 Full Review Dorothy Woodend The Tyee (British Columbia) That's what art does -- it helps to shape the raw and often unbearable material of reality, into a symbolic story that takes on a life of its own. That is precisely what Inside Hana's Suitcase also does. It is a graceful and important film. Aug 22, 2017 Full Review Alexandra Cavallo Boston Phoenix The real buoyancy comes from watching the students learn about both the dangers of hatred and the capacity of the human spirit to endure. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 8, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (10) audience reviews
Audience Member Good as far as documentaries go... Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Very well done film that tells the story of a Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust, her brother who survived and the suitcase that helped their story to be told. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Very tearful and heartfelt. A true story that touches your heart because of the hope that it can bring through all the tragedy. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review walter m Imagine the best show and tell ever and you will have "Inside Hana's Suitcase" which starts when Fumiko Ishioka, an elementary school teacher in Japan, is loaned some artifacts from the Holocaust Museum. One of them is a suitcase once belonging to Hana Brady who was 11 when she was sent to a concentration camp. The curiosity of Fumiko's students leads her on a quest that will eventually bring her to the Czech Republic and Hana's surviving brother, George. As heartfelt as this documentary is, I think I might not exactly be the right audience for it, as it seems aimed mostly to children, who mostly narrate, in order to teach them about tolerance and the Holocaust, bringing it to a level they can understand without scarring them for life. Regardless of the audience, the dramatizations work better in recreating life in the concentration camps than before the war. Now, if only the documentary had been structured better, like maybe pulling a "Searching for Sugar Man" in following Fumiko first, and letting the suspense build, before filling in the rest of the story. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member wat else can we all say. s*** is awesome Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member "Inside Hana's Suitcase" is more than your usual Holocaust documentary. It is much more. The filmmaker has cleverly interspersed cinematic elements in the story of the documentary in which actors portray elements of the victim's story. Through the efforts of a highly motivated educator / muesum director in Japan who receives a suitcase on which is written the name of one victim of Auschwitz, she (and we) discover Hana Brady's family's remarkable story. This is a film which should become a part of many school / college / synagogue libraries. In many ways it enhances the message of the fine documentary "Paper Clips." Bravo! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Inside Hana's Suitcase

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Movie Info

Synopsis Two children grow up in Czechoslovakia and endure extreme hardships for being Jewish.
Director
Larry Weinstein
Producer
Rudolf Biermann, Jessica Daniel, Larry Weinstein
Screenwriter
Thomas Wallner
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
May 27, 2019
Runtime
1h 28m
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