Miracle in Cracow

Budapest, 1999. In the old Jewish quarter. Nothing has changed. It is the same as hundreds years ago. Passing through the streets, listening to Mahler's symphony, the memories of the past and the present come together.

A boy's secret trek from his country town to Budapest to claim a prize evolves into the hopeful search for his missing father. Lali, a Roma boy, wins a chocolate bar from a friend in a card game and discovers that the wrapper makes him the lucky winner of a red motor scooter. How to claim the prize in person, as required, when you're only twelve and look much younger? First-time director Groó creates a sure and realistic depiction of childhood on the cusp of manhood in this sensitive and lovingly crafted coming-of-age story.

A child returns to the same place where he started.

The first woman rabbi in the world, Regina Jonas, comes to light, courtesy of Rachel Weisz – who plays her – and her father George Weisz, who was the executive producer for this poetic and beautiful documentary. The daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler, Jonas was ordained in Berlin in 1935. During the Nazi era and the war, her sermons and her unparalleled devotion brought encouragement to the persecuted German Jews. Regina Jonas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. The only surviving photo of Jonas serves as a leitmotif for the film, showing a determined young woman gazing at the camera with self-confidence.