J. Tyler Holmes

(An op-ed movie review for Feature and Opinion Writing edited by ex-Chicago Tribune Editorial Board Member Dodie Hofstetter – 2/24/16)

“Prisoner of Her Past” is a compelling and emotionally-charged documentary based on “The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich” by Chicago Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich, illuminating on modern-day trauma issues through the 60-year-old story of his mother, Sonia.

For Sonia, a Holocaust survivor, war has begun again. After fleeing her Skokie home in the night back in 2001, exclaiming that Nazis were attempting to kill her, she was diagnosed with late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder. Everything Sonia had been running from for so many years had finally caught up with her, and her previous reality was reappearing through delusions she believed real. Suddenly memories from Howard’s childhood about his mother’s behavior and paranoia began to make sense.

Howard decides to explore his mother’s history by returning to Eastern Europe in hope of finding answers and a solution to relieve her PTSD. Accompanied by his mother’s cousin and fellow Holocaust survivor Leon Slominski, Howard embarks to the Ukranian town of Dubna to confront the past Sonia refuses to acknowledge. Many local citizens welcome the two with open arms throughout their travels; however, nobody is keen to provide answers to the darker questions they propose. Leon is able to shed light on what life were like in Europe before the war, and shares his own painstaking journey of survival. Through these anecdotes Howard is able to piece together his mother’s history in better detail.

Throughout the documentary, it becomes an emphasized theme that Leon is able to face the horrors of the past because he was allowed a childhood while Sonia could only run for survival. Trust was not an option for her back then and that is why she trusts none of the doctors that assist her now, or even Leon as he finally meets with her after so many years have passed. Watching Sonia remain fully aware of her modern surroundings while simultaneously made a victim to her delusions is both heartbreaking and packed with raw emotion.

Toward the end, focus is changed from Sonia’s experiences to survivors of a different shock; children affected by Hurricane Katrina. The film overall is presented through conversational dialogue between Howard and the people he encounters, which remains the prominent take-away message. Though it may be too late for Sonia to recover, expressing these distressing memories and communicating painful stories can hopefully allow future trauma victims to find peace.