She who saved them
‘So Many Miracles’ at NCJF
In 1986 actor Saul Rubinek accompanied his parents on an amazing journey to Poland that was filmed for the Canadian documentary “So Many Miracles.” His parents, Israel and Frania, had survived the Shoah through the courage and spirit of a Polish peasant woman, Zofia Banya. She hid them in her home for what they all thought would be a short-term situation. It would last for 28 months.
Banya and her family took a tremendous risk given that discovery would have meant their own deaths as well. Already taking care of a husband and a seven-year-old son, she took in the Rubineks and made sure the secret was kept until after the war. Somehow even seven-year-old Maniek figured out what was at stake, for he helped keep the Rubineks safe when German soldiers arrived and spent the night in the house.
Saul Rubinek, who produced and wrote the film as well as narrates it, gives us the story of his parents as they walk through the Polish community they had not seen in more than 40 years. When Frania stands on the very spot where Germans opened fire on a crowd of Jews and tells how she managed to survive it is absolutely chilling. The film builds to the joyful reunion between the Rubineks and the Banyas, and, if you’re not moved by this, you’re not breathing.
That’s where the 1987 documentary ends, but it’s not the end of the DVD. As a bonus there are further interviews with the Rubineks in 1991 and 2007 that fill us in on the rest of the story, revealing the surprising lives of Israel and Frania after the initial showing of the film.
It came to the attention of director Barry Levinson, who was then working on “Avalon” (1990) and who ended up casting both of them in his movie. Frania even got an encore appearance, playing the grandmother in Levinson’s “Liberty Heights” (1999).
In the recent footage Saul Rubinek muses on how a film that began as a way to understand his parents has now become a piece of family history that he is passing on to his children. He wasn’t even married when he made the documentary, and so creating a legacy was the last thing on his mind. Now he inspires others to record or write down their family histories before those memories are gone.
The result is a DVD that not only tells how the Rubineks survived and honors the Banyas. It takes us forward as well, showing how they got on in the world even as the memories of that time would forever haunt them. Saul Rubinek has not only created a fine documentary for his children. In sharing the lives of his parents he has given a gift to us all.
“So Many Miracles” is available through the National Center for Jewish Film for $36. Public performance rights separately available. Call 781-736-8600 or go to www.jewishfilm.org.
Daniel M. Kimmel, a Boston-based film critic and author, reviews Jewish films for the Advocate. He lectures widely on a variety of film-related topics and can be reached at daniel.kimmel@rcn.com.
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