On Jan. 20 and 21, the Miami Jewish Film Festival will screen the Canadian drama, “The Boy in the Woods.” The film is based on the memoir of Holocaust survivor Maxwell Smart and dramatizes his childhood experience of having to fend for himself in the forests of Poland during World War II.
In advance of the screening, director Rebecca Snow expressed why she made the film.
“I made a documentary in 2019 titled ‘Cheating Hitler: Surviving The Holocaust,’ which followed the stories of three child survivors of the Holocaust, and that’s where I first came across Maxwell’s extraordinary story of surviving in the woods for a year in Eastern Poland. It struck me as very cinematic: the mythical landscape of the woods, the trauma of what this boy was enduring, and the fact that he was a young artist. All those elements reminded me of a Grimms’ fairy tale and it felt like a new and unique way to tell a true Holocaust story.
“A year after filming ‘Cheating Hitler,’ I kept returning to Maxwell’s story,” she added. “I couldn’t let go of it, or it didn’t let go of me. I’m not sure which, but I knew I had to write a screenplay based on his experience. With Max’s blessing, during COVID, I sat down with his memoir (also called ‘The Boy In The Woods’) and started adapting it into what became the movie script. This is a story about hope, courage and resilience winning out over conflict, hatred and fear. We sure can use some inspirational and hopeful stories in our lives right now.”
Snow explained how she adapted Maxwell’s art into the film’s plot.
“I was particularly interested in how the artistic mind of this boy was being shaped by his traumatic experiences and how he used his art as an outlet for the pain and grief,” she said. “Max is an abstract expressionist, which is an artistic movement that came out of war-torn Europe in the ’40s, and this was something I was interested in exploring. How did this artistic boy who was robbed of a childhood view the world turned upside-down around him?”
Snow shared the film’s South Florida connection: “Miami is very significant to Maxwell and I because it is where we first met. Max is from Montreal but he spends much of the winter in Miami. I flew from Toronto to interview him for the documentary four years ago. It was during that first interview that he told me at great length about his experience. This is when the seed for the project was first planted and we had more than a documentary here. We have presented the film at a number of festivals in Canada, where the film was made. This will be our first international festival and our first Jewish film festival, which is very significant at this time given the subject matter.”
Snow expressed what she hopes viewers take away from seeing the film: “We’re living in a time of increased antisemitism and witnessing an alarming rise in race-based hate speech. I think it is important to amplify these warnings from history about the dangers of extremism and discrimination now more than ever.”
“The Boy in the Woods” will be screened during the Miami Jewish Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Michael-Ann Russell JCC, 18900 NE 25th Ave., North Miami Beach; and at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at the Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores.
The Miami Jewish Film Festival runs through Jan. 25. Visit miamijewishfilmfestival.org for more information on this and other films.
