CJFF Presents: DISPLACED
Virtual Screening
When: November 20, 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM
Cost: Free
Release Year: 2021
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director(s): Sharon Ryba-Kahn
Synopsis:
Sharon’s relationship with Germany has always been conflictual to say the least, at the same this was something she had just accepted. This is true although, she was born in Munich and currently lives in Berlin. Sharon is Jewish and a third-generation Shoah survivor. When her estranged father Moritz contacts her again after 7 years, it becomes an impetus for her to reconstruct her father’s family history. From here on a journey begins in which Sharon, tries to understand who her father is and who his parents were. After having survived the Holocaust her father’s parents, who were originally from Poland arrived in Munich, in the American zone. They remained in Munich for the longest time. Sharon travels from place to place, from person to person trying to understand, how has the Shoah impacted her father’s family. The past leads her always back to her own life, after all, she is living in Germany. Little by little she also confronts her non-Jewish German environment.
Director: Sharon Ryba-Kahn
Sharon Ryba-Kahn was born in Munich in 1983. She spent her first 14 years in Munich, before moving to Jerusalem in 1997, because her mother was appointed Middle East Correspondent. In 2001, after she graduating from the French Lycée in Jerusalem, she moved to Paris to study acting. She worked as a stage manager on the French premiere of 4 Dogs and Bone, by John Patrick Shanley. She continued her theater studies in New York at the New Actors Workshop, where she was taught by Mike Nichols. At that point, she began to direct theater pieces.
After working as an actress and as a director in various productions in New York, she decided to continue her education by studying film production at the New York Film Academy. In 2007 Sharon moved to Berlin and began working as a freelance film professional, mostly as an Assistant Director, Casting Director, and actress.
Sharon Ryba-Kahn worked on major international productions such as Valkyrie, and co-cast feature films like “Hütte im Wald” by Hans Weingartner. She worked on feature films, documentaries, commercials, and short films. In 2009, while continuing to work, she began her academic studies. In 2013, while working on Hakara (English title: “Recognition”), she also created an image film for Gallery Clair, “Some words on Chim”, and also interned at the Cinema South Film Festival, where she ended up coordinating the introduction event of the “Produire au Sud” workshop. She also curated a cinematic event, “Voices of the Peripherie between Berlin and Israel.” In the Fall of 2013, she graduated with a MA in Visual Anthropology from the FU Berlin.