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WGA-W# 1252693
Based on a true story of a Jewish girl, who comes of age in the Soviet Union during the times of rampant anti-Semitism.
When she learns about her great-grandmother's failed trip to the west and imagines the lives they could have had, she makes it her mission to repeat that trip and bring her family with her, and in doing so she repeats history by putting herself and her family in great danger.
Logline: A Jewish girl, growing up in the Soviet Union, comes face to face with the anti-Semitism that plagues the country. When she learns about her great-grandmother's failed trip to the west and imagines the lives they could have had, she makes it her mission to repeat that trip and bring her family with her, and in doing so she repeats history by putting herself and her family in great danger.
Synopsis: The story begins in 1914 when, in the darkest days of pogroms, a Jewish family flees its shtetl in the Pale of Settlement in search of life without fear in Argentina. Their trip coincides with the beginning of the World War I and amid the chaos one of their daughters, SARAH, is left behind when the train departs earlier than expected. (This is the Prologue sequence).
The story continues in the 1980s with SONYA, Sarah’s great-granddaughter, growing up a loyal Soviet citizen. Sonya is passionate about the Revolution, she admires Lenin, and she strongly believes herself to be an integral part of the society until she is unfairly passed over for the acceptance into the ranks of Pioneers. This painful incident marks the beginning of a pattern during which Sonya will be continuously shunned for being a Jew.
Through the carefully crafted montage we bear witness to dozens of anti-Semitic incidents that come Sonya’s way. One day, when she is seventeen, she learns that she is pregnant with her high school boyfriend, ALEXANDER’S, baby. They are in love and, fully expecting a marriage proposal, Sonya tells Alexander of her pregnancy. Instead, however, he explains that he will never be able to marry her because as a Jew she will ruin his chances at being a Soviet diplomat. Devastated but fearful to confide in her parents, Sonya undergoes an illegal abortion.
At the meantime Sonya’s father, JOSEPH, is taken into the KGB for questioning. He is pressured to become an informer and, when he refuses, he looses his job. As Sonya eavesdrops on her parents conversation about what might have been the reason for the KGB’s interest, she learns of Sarah’s fate.
With life seemingly over after the break up and the abortion, the thought of having a long-lost family somewhere in Argentina captivates Sonya. She aches to learn more and she turns to ROSA, her grandmother, for details. When Rosa gives her the letters that Sarah received from Argentina, the words enthrall Sonya. For the first time she learns of a world she never thought existed the world where Jews are treated with respect.
It is then that she decides she must lead her own family to freedom. And as she does so, she draws strength and courage from her great-grandmother Sarah who lived through and survived the darkest periods of Russia’s 20th century history. It is also at this time that Sonya meets MIKE, a son of a Jewish dissident, who becomes her change agent and her helping hand.
Sonya’s journey to the west is laden with obstacles to overcome. Will she succeed in her quest and what will it take to finally complete the trip her great-grandmother had started but never realized?
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