BJFF: Stella: A Life

6:00pm – Discussion with Guest Speaker Dr. Catherine Lewis
Dr. Lewis is the Associate Vice Provost for Museums, Archives & Rare Books and University Libraries; Executive Director of the Museum of History and Holocaust Education; and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. She oversees a multi-million-dollar budget with a staff of nearly 100 professionals. She is the author, co-editor, or co-author of sixteen books and has curated more than 40 exhibits for organizations around the nation. Active in Atlanta’s Jewish community, she has served as program committee and selection committee chair for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

7:00pm – Film Screening: Stella: A Life
Stella Goldschlag, a young German Jew, grows up in Berlin during the rule of the Nazi regime. Despite all the repressive measures of the time, she still dreams of a career as a jazz singer. After she is forced to go into hiding with her parents in February 1943, her life begins to turn into a culpable tragedy wherein she is inevitably caught by the Gestapo. Tortured and threatened with death, Stella makes the crushing decision to save herself and her parents from deportation to Auschwitz by becoming a “grabber,” systematically betraying other Jews by turning them over to authorities.

Featuring a “dynamite performance” (Filmuforia) by Paula Beer (Transit, Undine, and Afire), the film tells the shocking real life story of the great evils ordinary people are capable of when faced with making a morally impossible choice.

The special relevance of Stella’s story for today’s audience lies in the complexity of the protagonist and the hopelessness of her situation: “A breathtakingly modern story. Her main character could be one of us: she is young, self-confident and in love with herself. This woman is a perpetrator – but also a victim. She forces us into the dilemma of betrayal. How would we have decided?” says director and writer Kilian Riedhof. View Film Trailer >

[ Drama | Germany 2023 | Dir: Kilian Riedhof | 120 minutes | German with English subtitles ]

Part of The 37th Annual William & Irene Weinberg Family Baltimore Jewish Film Festival. Film selections curated by the Festival Committee.