At The Movies

ARMS OF STRANGERS

Into The Arms
Of Strangers

A new documentary at the Maple Theatre
tells the poignant story of children saved from the Nazis.

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Producer/author Deborah
Gppenheimer

Director/author
Mark Harris

from page 77

their names on a posted list of Jews
who had perished in the death camps.
While Oppenheimer did not push
her mother to relive painful memories,
she hoped one day to make a docu-
mentary about the Kindertransport,
perhaps when her career in television
was over. Then events intervened to
remind her that the proverbial clock
was ticking.
In 1990, during a routine physical
exam, doctors found a spot on Sylva's
lung; when she died of cancer three
years later, at the age of 65, her past
seemed to die with her.
Then came a startling discovery: a
cache of letters, hidden in a drawer,
that had been mailed every day by
Oppenheimer's grandparents to her
mother in England. Written on tissue-
thin paper in delicate fountain pen,
the letters made Oppenheimer's family ,
come alive for the first time. "No one,
not even my father, had known that
the letters existed," says the TV execu-
tive, who also is the producer of the
feature-length documentary Into the

Arms of Strangers: Stories of the
Kindertransport, which opens today at
the Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield
Township.
The letters included family gossip,
nicknames, terms of endearment and
attempts at parenting from afar. "It
was thrilling to realize my mother had
been so deeply loved," says
Oppenheimer, who learned of the
Kindertransport's 60th and last
reunion in June 1999 and realized
time was running out.
"My mother's death gave me permis-
sion to explore the subject without
fear of hurting her," she adds, ruefully.
Oppenheimer approached filmmak-
er Mark Jonathan Harris of The Long
Way Home, the Oscar-winning docu-
mentary about the aftermath of the
Shoah, only to find Harris was reluc-
tant to begin another Holocaust film.
"I think there's a certain amount of
what I'd call, 'Holocaust exhaustion,"'
the 55-year-old USC film professor
said in an interview. "If you embark
upon a film in that arena, you'd better
have a fresh perspective."
He was persuaded, finally, by the
chance to write and direct a movie
that was as much about the resilience
of children as the Shoah, a preoccupa-
tion of Harris' since learning how his
Hungarian grandfather arrived alone
in the U.S. at the age of 12.
"The draw, for me, was telling the
story from a child's point of view,"
adds the director, whose five children's

