I Am Here(2022)

Storyline

• A life-affirming documentary that celebrates the remarkable life of Ella Blumenthal. At her 98th birthday celebrations she opens up to close friends and family about her story of survival during the Holocaust, in a way she has never done before. Her recollections, depicted through dynamic 2D animation, include tales of three concentration camps, and of narrowly escaping death in a gas chamber. Along with uplifting stories, like Ella dissuading her niece from ending her life. The animation is juxtaposed with present day footage of Ella performing her weekly spiritual rituals, being active in the swimming pool and walking on the promenade in Cape Town. She is not your average grandmother, her vivacious personality and her positive outlook on life is truly inspiring. A universal message of resilience - as Ella is the epitome of the will to survive. This film could not be more relevant in a world that still defines itself by what is other. This powerful film offers a portrait of 98-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal , whose vibrance and vitality has not been dimmed by either age or the weight of the terrible events she has endured. As Ella recounts her experience of the Holocaust, the corresponding events are rendered in sensitively drawn animation. The film follows Ella, who was a young adult at the time, from her happy life as a Polish teenager to the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto and on to Auschwitz, where she narrowly escaped the gas chambers. At a time when Holocaust denialism has gained fringe legitimacy, this is an important film and a counter to those who deny the horrors of history. In documenting Ella's narrative of survival and transcendence, the film provides a viscerally personal account of an historical event that is all too easily abstracted into ideology.