Summaries

In the last store in a defunct shopping mall, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski - great-grandmother, businesswoman, and Holocaust survivor - runs the tailor shop she's owned for more than thirty years. But when she's served an eviction notice, the specter of retirement prompts Sonia to revisit her harrowing past as a refugee and witness to genocide. A poignant story of generational trauma and healing, BIG SONIA also offers a laugh-out-loud-funny portrait of the power of love to triumph over bigotry, and the power of truth-telling to heal us all.

For years, Sonia Warshawski has been an inspirational public speaker at schools, churches and prisons, where her stories of surviving the Holocaust as a teenager have inspired countless students, prisoners and ex-cons who once felt their own traumas would leave them broken forever. But when Sonia is served an eviction notice for her iconic tailor shop, which has thrived in the bottom of a now-abandoned mall for 35 years, she is confronted with an agonizing decision: either open up a new shop-at age 90-or retire. For a woman who admits that she stays busy "to keep the dark parts away", facing retirement dredges up fears she'd long forgot she had, and her traumatic personal past resurfaces. Following Sonia as she continues on the motivational speaker circuit (even as she navigates her own struggles) BIG SONIA explores what it means to be a survivor. Will you let your trauma define you? Or will your past make you stronger?—Leah Warshawski

Details

Keywords
  • prison
  • redemption
  • holocaust
  • fashion
  • leopard print
Genres
  • Family
  • History
  • Documentary
Release date Jun 17, 2017
Countries of origin United States
Language English
Filming locations Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Production companies KC Film Office True Productions Inflatable Film

Box office

Budget $500000
Gross US & Canada $212471
Opening weekend US & Canada $4398
Gross worldwide $212471

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 33m
Color Color
Sound mix Dolby Surround 7.1
Aspect ratio

Synopsis

All Filters