Tallahassee Jewish Federation 2015 Film Series presents: “Run Boy Run”
The first film in the 2015 Jewish film series, sponsored by the Tallahassee Jewish Federation is scheduled for Friday, February 27 and Sunday, March 1 and will feature the 2014 film Run Buy Run.
The film tells the true story of Yoram Israel Fridman (nicknamed Srulik), who was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto at age eight and for three years survives on his own in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 1942, the now eight-year old Srulik is smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto and hunkers down, wet, cold and hungry, in a vast Polish forest.
He first falls in with a band of orphaned Jewish youngsters who raid Polish farms for food and wood, but when that falls apart, Srulik again strikes out on his own. Knocking at the doors of Polish farmers to ask for shelter in return for work, Srulik encounters rejections and even beatings, but finally is taken by Magda, the wife and mother of Polish partisans (portrayed by Elizabeth Duda in a stellar performance). Magda is warm-hearted, brave, but above all practical. Knowing that Srulik will have a better chance of survival as a Catholic boy than as a Jew, she renames him Jurek, teaches him the Hail Mary prayer, gives him a crucifix and, above all, warns him never to take down his pants, or relieve himself, in front of a Pole.
Despite all precautions, word spreads in the village that Magda is hiding a Jew, the SS raids and torches her home, and after some heart-stopping escapes, the boy is again on the run. Finding work on one farm, the boy’s arm is caught in a wheat-grinding machine and has to be amputated. Even after this horrendous accident, Jurek survives to welcome the Russian liberators and, still passing as a Catholic, spends the next three years in an orphanage in Lodz.
The film concludes with a phone call with Yoram Israel Fridman – formerly Srulik and Jurek who tells the rest of the story, from his aliya to Israel in 1948 to the present.
The film will be presented on Friday, February 27 at 6 PM and again on Sunday, March 1 at 4:00 and 6:15 PM at All saints Cinema.