Big Sonia (2016) User Reviews

don't carry hate

[ferguson-6 · 8/10 · 16 November 2017]

Greetings again from the darkness. Some people anxiously await the day they can retire and spend their days fishing or reading, while others put it off as long as possible since they find their identity through work. The diminutive subject of this terrific documentary is 91 year old Sonia Warshawski. Her reasons for maintaining a 6 day work week are both heart-warming and chilling, and make for a fascinating story.

Filmmakers Todd Soliday and Leah Warshawski (Sonia's granddaughter) do their part in allowing the charming and fiery lady to deliver her own message and recount the horrors of her childhood. Sonia is a Holocaust survivor. As a 13 year old in 1939 Poland, she and her family were taken. She never again saw her father or brother, took multiple beatings while being shuffled through 3 death camps (including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen), and ultimately watched her mother led into the gas chamber. In her own words, she says she "was in hell", and it's "a miracle" she made it out.

You might assume that anyone who has experienced so much pain would be bitter and cynical, but that's not Sonia's way. In addition to running her tailor shop for 35 years, she is also an inspirational speaker at churches, schools and prisons. We get to see her in these presentations and we are struck by how her words carry such weight with the audiences – young and old. One of the convicts provides insight when he states, "It takes people who've been through something to reach those going through something". We also witness the way she connects with teenage students … something most of us have little success with.

Of course, Sonia has embraced her story, but the emotions and pain are never far from her. She stays busy to keep the memories at bay, and finds the idea of retirement somewhat frightening. We meet her 3 children and hear stories of their childhood and her husband John, also a Holocaust survivor. John died from Alzheimer's complications, but he is remembered fondly by all. It's so touching to watch as Sonia shows us her mother's 75 year old scarf which she keeps under her pillow, and we are mesmerized as she recounts the incredible story of her liberation day.

An NPR radio interview provides some structure throughout, but it's not necessary as we would follow Sonia wherever she leads. It's so much fun to watch her Overland Park customers greet her in the now- defunct shopping mall, and it's downright hilarious as she sports her favorite animal prints on her coat, shoes and purse … and even the cover on the steering wheel that she can barely see over! Mostly this is a life lesson from a master who teaches us "don't carry hate" … even though she admits to being unable to forgive. She leaves that to a higher power. She is the best example we could have for keeping history alive and spreading love and goodness.

A reminder to LOVE.

[jjbedell · 9/10 · 2 December 2017]

Being from Kansas City I always love to support a "hometown" hero. But this is SO MUCH MORE than just supporting a local women with a tremendous story and her loving family who has documented her story.

Sonia, a holocaust survivor. She literally grew up in hell. Imagine the worst, but make it even worst. Her stories are heart wrenching. But she is larger than life and her heart is filled with so much love and positivity. She has no tolerance for hatred. This movie is strong reminder to all of "don't carry hate" and to LOVE. This documentary has so many life lessons.

The difficult parts of the movie are when Sonia tells her memories of her childhood at the concentration camps. The director opted to illustrate those memories which made it a little more tolerable to "see". Sonia's words though, paint the picture. I took my 11 yr old and it was age appropriate and started some great conversations with her. Not only about the childhood Sonia suffered, but about the LOVE that needs to be in this world.

Be prepared to laugh, cry, gasp and reflect. We need more Sonia's in this crazy world we live in.

A new, intriguing story about survival

[sscheuler · 9/10 · 4 December 2017]

This movie was not what I was expecting but it had more than I was expecting in many ways -- all very good. Knowing about the main character's background, I knew it was about survival, but I didn't know how much more I would learn about how to survive, but mostly how to thrive despite your past. I also was incredibly moved by the inspirational other story lines. So glad that I didn't think "oh, here's another take on a familiar story." Well done!

Big Sonia - Kicks History into Real Life

[laughlincheryl · 10/10 · 10 October 2017]

Big Sonia was one of those serendipitous finds that refocuses the impact of the Holocaust and its repercussions in not only Sonia's family but all those whose come into contact with Big Sonia.

Recently, while feeling nostalgic about my Ohio roots, I learned about Big Sonia playing at the Cleveland Film Festival. And this is what grabbed me by the heart and shook me to the core (and I'm not prone to hyperbole):

"Standing tall at 4'8′, Sonia Warshawki is a business owner of a beloved 35-year-old store facing eviction because of a dying mall. But at 91 years old, she is also – one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Kansas City. Sonia's enormous personality and fragile frame mask the horrors she endured at 15..."

At that point, I was all in to catch the film when it made it to California and this indie-film-that-could does not disappoint. Be ready to walk away with a renewed awe of the human spirit to endure and grow and spark change.

Timely, poignant & necessary for all ages

[concannonlaw · 10/10 · 20 November 2017]

This is one of the best films of 2017, and it is absolutely necessary for the times we live in. "Big Sonia" is the antidote to hatred and intolerance, to prejudice born of ignorance. At the end of the day, we are all people, regardless of the color of our skin, who we worship, who we choose to vote for, or who we kiss. This film makes you realize that the person sitting next to you on any given day may have a story that makes you think about who you are and what you believe.

I am sure the filmmakers did not intend to make a film that could bring people together and teach them about tolerance and forgiveness. The film starts out as the story of somebody's eccentric grandmother and then morphs into something more. Much, much more. I am not going to talk about the plot or the characters. All I want to do is encourage you to see the film, prepare to smile, and prepare to think. Recommend it to your family and your friends, and watch it with your kids. Show them that the real superheroes in our world are actually living on any street in Anytown, USA, or simply working at the mall.

Poignant, inspiring, and truly relevant, Big Sonia is a must see.

[FireballDeena · 10/10 · 20 November 2017]

This film is an exceptional educational tool, and is also entertaining, insightful, and heart-warming despite, or because of, the subject matter. The Holocaust, Jewish history, and Sonia's story, are all-too-relevant for world events today. Sonia and her family remind us that we must never forget. A true family affair and labor of love, Big Sonia blends the past with the present, and also gives hope for the future.

I saw Big Sonia at The Quad Cinema in New York, followed by a Q&A with directors Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday, and with Evi Blaikie, board member of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. It was an honor to meet Sonia herself in person, and she said: "tell your friends to see the movie".

Another Discrimination

[westsideschl · 6/10 · 23 June 2018]

A doc on the last shop keeper, ironically in a dying mall of abandoned shops, and stores. Discrimination is pervasive and at times difficult to recognize. In this doc we have the worst type which is told in the tale of a survivor of the killing of peoples based on religious, cultural, or racial superficialities specifically the Holocaust. To be balanced there is also the slow choking to death of a people such as what is happening to the Palestinians. Rated lower because the doc makers discriminated against the elderly and those with hearing issues by not including subtitling. Shame!

Must See! Transformative and Packs a Punch

[kim-27072 · 10/10 · 21 November 2017]

Big Sonia, winner multiple Audience and Jury awards across the country and internationally, packs such a powerful punch it will transform the way you look at the world.Husband and wife filmmaking team, Todd Soliday and Leah Warshawski, have a synergy that translates directly onto the screen.

The making of Big Sonia is almost as profound as the movie itself. What began as an idea to create a colorful short about Director/Producer Leah Warshawski's 87-year-old (now 92) grandmother, a Holocaust survivor and unlikely fashion diva whose popular tailor shop was the only store still operating in a decrepit Kansas City mall.

While this is certainly story enough, when they arrived to begin filming, Leah and Todd discover that Grandma Sonia isn't simply a pint size octogenarian tearing into her daily illegal parking space, thick red lipstick and highly stylized hair barely peering over the leopard-wrapped steering wheel. This woman is all that and a courageous force whose public speaking tours are changing the lives of everyone she meets, from middle school students to prisoners at the state penitentiary.

Intuitively, the filmmakers expanded the short into a full-length feature, a movie that beautifully braids layers of loss and redemption with the story themes. Soliday's film editing is masterful.

Every bit of the story line resonates: Sonia's eviction notice from the mall threatening to close the tailor shop; adult prisoners and public school students visibly affected by Sonia's story; a difficult history uniquely recreated with creative (and sensitive) animation by artist, Rachel Ignotofsky and Dawn Norton; the impact of Sonia's experience on the lives of her grown children; and, of course, the wild ride that is Sonia herself, from holding court at the tailor shop to sharing the remnants of her mother's scarf with shaking hands, cutting flowers and choosing her lavish outfits.

Each thread strengthens the overall film, working together to create something greater than the individual parts, resulting in an experience so profound and beautiful that, by the end, you are stunned. Everything has somehow shifted, especially your worldview, and each tiny thing is now visible through a new lens. If you care about good storytelling, see this movie; prepare to be moved.

Great subject (person), message, editing, etc.

[claudethau · 10/10 · 20 November 2017]

"Big Sonia" is an uplifting story of resilience. In a Kansas City Star article, Eric Adler described "Big Sonia" as a story "of modern-day survival — how a tiny woman, time and again, after facing her own death and then that of her husband, is nonetheless able to reinvent herself and find hope and meaning in life."

Sonia's example of shunning hate serves us all well, a universal theme for all eras, as discussed in a KC Star article by Melinda Henneberger.

My favorite scene shows the reactions (to Sonia's comments) of long-term inmates in Lansing Correctional Facility. It tells you a lot about these prisoners as well as about Sonia.

The film also reminds us of the "dark side" of humanity, creatively using Sonia's doodles to give glimpses of the sordid history of her six years in concentration camps. Many viewers have praised the use of drawings rather than photos or recreations.

Sonia's children's comments provide valuable insights into the subtle impact of atrocities on succeeding generations.

I marvel that Todd Soliday was able to edit more than 600 hours of tape into a 93-minute movie. The stuff on the cutting room floor must have been heart-wrenching to drop.

When confronted with troubling occurrences in other countries, too many of us presume "that could never happen here". "Big Sonia" reminds us that we must remain vigilant and be willing to act to preserve freedom for fellow citizens, as well as ourselves.

Don't miss this film.

[cvonde · 10/10 · 20 November 2017]

As harrowing as it is to face the inhumanity of our species, I feel we need to continue to do so. The beauty of this compelling and lovingly created film allows us to turn a lens on the worst of our history. It was stunning to find areas to uplift our spirits while dealing with the most despicable acts imaginable. Bravo Sonia! You bring light and hope to all who's paths you cross.

Heartwarming story of a young Holocaust survivor and her eventual life in the U.S.

[fliegelman · 10/10 · 24 November 2017]

This is a heartwarming story of a young Holocaust survivor, her story and her eventual family.

A 14-year-old girl is caught in the Holocaust, survived multiple concentration camps and their horrors and eventually survived. She marries a fellow survivor, moves to the U.S. and raises a family. This is her story and that of her family.

While the period in Europe is discussed, it is not graphic and can be suitable for school age children although there is no doubt that this is something they will not forget.

They move to Kansas City where they operate a tailor shop and attempt to live a normal American life. Of course, their family is not normal, and never can be, given what the parents have lived through and the absence of an extended family.

I have a similar background personally so I could readily relate to the situation. My parents background, and those of myself and my brothers, is not all that much different than that in the move.

In the end, Sonia and her husband survived and thrived through some of the most horrifying events of humanity.

I am very glad I saw the movie. The movie is quite appropriate for educational audiences and events such as Yom Hashoa commemoration programs that want to remember the horrors of that period.

While her story is not uncommon for Holocaust survivors, the movie does an excellent job of saving this story for history when the last survivors is no longer with us.

My congratulations to the people behind this valiant effort and the story they leave behind.

Once again sat crying on a plane

[timitullis · 10/10 · 10 August 2018]

Alaskan Air has this movie on its menu this month. I decided to watch it and was not disappointed. I actually watched it twice it's so good. In this day and age of not being nice to one another this movie reminds us why we need to be. Sonia is someone that I wish I could've met in person she touched my heart deeply. It's a story about family it's a story about Love, it's a story about resilience and most of all it's a story about Sonia. It's well worth the time.

10,000th attendance tonight! Best movie of any kind I have seen this year!

[mickeesks · 9/10 · 22 December 2017]

So many reasons to see this incredible documentary/movie. Some say it is better if you know her but not many who have seen this know her and are telling friends to go see it. It's about family, greater love compassion and understanding, history, and human interest. I love documentaries and this is another one with a glimpse into a life with tragedy, humility, triumph, and joy.

Everyday Angel of History

[wincheja-1 · 9/10 · 28 January 2018]

There's a joke that we Jews tell one another all over the world: "How many Jewish grandmothers does it take to screw-in a lightbulb? "--None! What's the use? I'll just sit here in the dark. . . ." The humor of this joke derives from the fact that Jewish grandmothers will notoriously go to any length to make sure they're "no trouble," "not in anyone's way," with each tiny lady making precisely zero extraordinary (or even ordinary) demands on other members of the family, all of whose well-being, comfort and continuity are the sole purpose of her existence anyway. In short, a kind of angel-on-earth. Leah Warshawski's powerful documentary film Big Sonia (2016) explores the "daily life" of one such earthly, angelic great-grandmother, who dwells among us mortals even as her indomitable spirit leaps off the screen and into the viewer's heart-center. And it's okay to call her Big Sonia. It's a term of affection applied with loving irony, in part because of her diminutive physical stature. For we learn that Big Sonia, although tiny, is in fact a Very Large Person, with an expansive, radiating aura of strength: she is a great Jewish great-grandmother and, at age 91, a full-time businesswoman who continues to operate her tailoring-and-alteration shop in a now-abandoned mall in Kansas City, Missouri. Crucially, Big Sonia is a survivor of the Holocaust of 1939-45: Hitler and the Nazi Party's programmatic mass murder of over six million Jews, Roma, homosexuals, persons with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses, other minorities, and political prisoners, in a vast system of concentration camps, death factories and forced-labor prisons. She's a survivor of "genocidal profiling." She survived years in Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was hit in the lung by a stray bullet on the day of liberation. She somehow survived a difficult recovery from that wound, then immigration, then marriage to a fellow camp-survivor and then decades of family life. She has also survived widowhood and now, halfway into the film, she faces eviction from her shop in the desolate mall and must decide whether or not to move it, or to retire. The co-directors write on a press release: "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. . . . BIG SONIA explores what it means to be a survivor." There is a shared urgency to her story, and ours. As time and mortality pass by, fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors walk among us. One day soon the last living, speaking survivor of a Nazi concentration camp will no longer draw breath, nor bear witness to her truth. When that day comes, our species' communal memory will of necessity rely on the best available evidence-of-record: documents, the historical record. In early spring of 1945, at the moment General Dwight D. Eisenhower first beheld the atrocities visible in the Nazi concentration camps that he visited upon their liberation, he recognized instantaneously the crucial importance of both personal witnessing and the obligatory role of film, and all media, in recording an accurate, unblinking account of the results of Nazi cruelty. Writing in a letter to General George C. Marshall on April 15, 1945, Eisenhower expressed his concerns in a passage now excerpted on a plaque placed outside the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington: "The things I saw beggar description," he wrote. "I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations to propaganda." Eisenhower's "deliberately" anti-propagandistic strategy of witnessing has served historical memory in crucial, self-reflective ways. In that same letter to Marshall, Eisenhower wrote in a wry parenthesis that even the tough-as-leather General George C. Patton could not stomach entering some of the enclosed spaces in the camp at Gotha, where bodies lay putrefying and crawling with vermin. But Ike had consciously resolved beforehand to do so; he then forced himself to go into even the darkest, most foul corners of the extermination camps, and thereby guaranteed the integrity of his own personal act of witnessing. He also famously ordered local townsfolk from neighboring German villages under armed guard to come on mandatory "guided tours" of the camps. Most crucially, perhaps, Eisenhower had astutely insisted on the presence of as many film crews, news and still photographers and reporters as he could muster to document both his own and the local villagers' visits--in addition to documenting the raw conditions of the camps themselves, of course. This footage was immediately edited and, as quickly as possible, shown as newsreels in theaters in Allied and liberated countries. Using his power as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, Eisenhower also directed governments to send elected officials, representative dignitaries and even international celebrities to travel to the camps in order to witness first-hand the reality of Nazi perversion. Most, if not all, of their visits were documented on film, photo and in print as well. Consequently, and thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Holocaust survivors, educators, archivists, documentarians and historians, most of us have seen the atrocity films, as documents: those bodies are forever stacked in rows, on film and in collective memory. They are immutable, in memory; subject to interpretation, evaluation, distortion, yes; and even to insane dismissal by crackpot deniers and lunatic neo-Nazis. But even while the documentary images may be denied or dismissed, as pompous Nazi Herman Goering attempted to do (unsuccessfully, in what may have been the first cry of "Fake News!") during his war-crimes trial at Nuremberg, these images are all the more liable to prove irrefutable for having been faithfully documented and preserved. So--if there's a rubric called "Films About the Holocaust," and a sub-heading titled "Atrocity Films,"--what might be its opposite? Let me re-state that: What's the opposite of an "atrocity film" that still qualifies as a film about the Holocaust? Whatever such a sub-genre might be called, Big Sonia will qualify. You will see no piles of corpses, no charred skeletons yawning out of ovens, in this film. But rest assured: The true horrors, atrocities and mass graves crowd around each frame of Big Sonia as we watch, but they will remain just out of sight during this particular, and in some ways unique, Holocaust film. This is why the term denoting Big Sonia's "daily life" deserves quotation marks: it represents an ongoing miracle, an everyday, community-wide colloquy chaired by a pragmatic angel, a down-to-earth festivity based on the radical normalcy of a grandmother's goodness. Sonia's person stands tall, speaks, walks, smiles and sews. Forever may it be so.

Bring your Kleenex and your sense of humor

[lbjecat · 10/10 · 2 December 2017]

Wonderful movie full of poignant moments with just the right touch of humor to dispel the sadness. Follow this 91 year old's story of her life from a concentration camp to current. Filmed in Kansas City but could be anywhere. Beautiful movie. Can't say enough good things about this film!! There needs to be a sequel!

A MUST-SEE!!

[omar-lugones-2 · 10/10 · 3 December 2018]

"Big Sonia" is one of the most powerful films you will ever see! Like the film, Sonia herself defies and transcends expectations. She is the ultimate survivor who proves, on a daily basis, that love is stronger than hate and there is always room for joy--all you have to do is let it in.

Life story of Holocaust survivor

[randiitzkowitz · 9/10 · 3 December 2017]

Entertaining and informative documentary about 91 year old Sonia Warshawski with unique use of animation to depict disturbing events during the war. Includes dialogue with various family members and friends on whose lives she had a direct impact as well as comments by students and prisoners whose lives were forever changed after listening to her speak about her experiences.

A bigger than life little lady who has inspired a city. Now a nation.

[beverly-29169 · 9/10 · 3 December 2017]

I had the pleasure of meeting Sonia at a large convention in Kansas City two years ago. She needed a ride back to her car at her tailor shop at the all-but-abandoned mall. My husband and I were happy to give this spunky, diminutive lady a lift. We loved the stories of her shop that she shared from our backseat and chuckled when we arrived at our destination and spied the leopard print wrap on her steering wheel. What a delight to watch the film of her story last night. Parts made me cry and others made me smile at her wit and wisdom. Seeing her through the eyes of her children and store patrons gave me a deeper understanding of this Kansas City legend. The film is well deserving of all the awards that it has earned. If you don't leave the theater inspired, you weren't paying attention.

Heart-warming and inspiring

[TheReelMovieMaven · 10/10 · 1 July 2019]

Not only the above, but an extremely well-crafted documentary, right down to the graphics, editing, sound, camera angles, etc. ... there is enough "action" and movement in this documentary (never mind the riveting pesonality of Sonia herself) to keep one from zoning out, as happens when docs are little more than a series of talking heads). As second-generation myself, I understood Sonia and her family's stories on a deep level, but I can see here how magnificently, through this documnetary, they can reach and touch so many others who know little of the Holocaust. I can't tell you what my favorite scene in this film was, because every minute was touching, entertaining, inspiring and deeply humanistic.

Good choice

[caronabhern · 9/10 · 21 December 2021]

AMC+ promotion for 1 week. Surfing through choices, decided on this doc. What a brilliant story! No one can fathom the trauma of the Holocaust, even some survivors, but Sonia prevailed. She wanted to educate others because skinheads said it never happened. Powerful.