“Vindicta”

In “Vindicta,” 19-year-old Hannah (Devon Ross) is about to be sent into hiding. Her parents plan to conceal her Jewish identity by changing her name to Anna and obtaining a falsified death certificate. But before she can escape, a knock at the door shatters those plans. A Nazi officer forces his way inside and murders her parents, forever altering Hannah’s life.

Traumatized yet galvanized, she flees into the surrounding woods, pursued by Nazis as her village—somewhere in occupied Czechoslovakia—burns behind her. She reaches the neighboring village where her parents had arranged for her to pose at the daughter of non-Jewish friends. While in hiding, Hannah begins to express her rage and grief with acts of vengeance on the Nazis who took her parents from her.

Ross delivers a strong performance in the lead, charting Hannah’s evolution from a frightened teenager to a woman hardened and self-possessed by trauma. When a handsome young Nazi officer (Jack Bandeira), captivated by her beauty and icy reserve, begins to pursue her romantically, she rebuffs him again and again. Yet his persistent—if outwardly respectful—courtship complicates her response and forces her to construct an even tighter façade to protect her true identity.

Director Dominik Sedlar’s searing, English-language World War II drama unfolds at times like a cat-and-mouse thriller, with bursts of shocking violence. Beneath the tension, however, the film probes the corrosive pull of rage and vengeance, keeping audiences on edge while asking unsettling moral questions. Visually polished and well-acted and inspired by several true stories of women who fought the Nazis, “Vindicta” offers a powerful meditation on rage and retribution.

The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival will present “Vindicta” at two screenings: at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 18 at Alamo Draft House at City Foundry; and 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19 at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive.

“The Pianist’s Choice”

The lush French drama “The Pianist’s Choice” sweeps across decades, from the 1920s through postwar Paris, moving fluidly back and forth in time after opening in the late 1940s.

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At its center is François Touraine (Oscar Lesage), a gifted pianist who first falls in love with music as a child in a wealthy French family. As he matures, he falls in love again—this time with his music teacher, Rachel (Pia Lagrange), who is Jewish.

Though François is not Jewish, Rachel’s identity shapes their fate. As Nazi occupation descends on Paris, shattering their idyllic life, François struggles to protect the woman he loves while keeping his devotion to music alive.

This personal story of courage and loss takes place against the backdrop of the rise of the Nazis in Germany and the Nazi occupation of France, as the targeting of Jewish musicians impacts the music profession across Europe. This well-made historical drama, by director Jacques Otmezguine and beautifully filmed by Lubomir Bakchev, is moving, romantic and heartbreaking, presenting a very human and humanistic view of war.

“The Pianist’s Choice” will be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 22 at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive.

“Once Upon My Mother”

Director Ken Scott’s French-language dramedy “Once Upon My Mother” starts out comical and gets more warm-hearted as it unfolds, as it tells of an unstoppable mother’s unconditional love. Based on French lawyer and broadcaster Roland Perez’s autobiographical novel “Ma Mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan,” the film depicts, in humorous fashion, a determined Moroccan Sephardic Jewish mother (Leila Bekhti) named Esther, an immigrant in Paris with six children and a husband, who refuses to accept the doctor’s grim prognoses for her youngest son, who was born with a club foot. Esther fights relentlessly, sometimes comically, to get him to walk and to give him a happy life.

The unstoppable Esther does find a treatment so her son can walk, using his love for French singer Sylvie Vartan (who appears later in the film) as motivation. She continually pushes for Roland (Jonathan Cohen) to achieve all the things needed for a happy life, including a successful career, marriage and children.

The film explores the mix of frustration, love and admiration a grown son might feel for such a strong-willed, even overbearing mother, and their relationship isn’t always smooth. In the end, it is a moving tribute to a mother who wouldn’t give up on the son she loves, no matter what. 

“The Pianist’s Choice” will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive.

St. Louis Jewish Film Festival

WHEN: March 15-26
WHERE: All films will be screened at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive, with one film having an initial screening at Alamo Drafthouse at the Foundry in St. Louis
MORE INFO: For full schedule and ticket and festival pass pricing, visit stljewishfilmfestival.org, or call 314-442-3283. Brochures can be picked up at the J.

Read the Light’s  previous festival coverage by visiting stljewishlight.org/jff2026