Regina

"Beautifully written and passionately directed by Groó, Regina… pays a graceful tribute to Regina Jonas, who serves as an undeniably inspiring subject for the film. With her soft-spoken voice, Rachel Weisz is well cast as Regina… Merging various pieces of footage of early twentieth-century Jewish life in Berlin, Ágnes Mógor’s skilful editing ensures a poignant backdrop for Groó to tell Regina Jonas’ incredible story” – London View

Awarded at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Krakow International Film Festival, this film brings to life a pivotal figure in the modern Jewish narrative: Regina Jonas. This is the life story of the world’s first female rabbi ­– as voiced by Rachel Weisz –reconstructed from a single photograph and other archival material. It is a poetic documentary about an extraordinary woman’s struggle, her devotion, faith, and love. Regina Jonas lived in Berlin in the 1930s, when a woman could not become a rabbi according to the laws of the Jewish religion. In 1935 Jonas found a liberal rabbi who would ordain her and during the Nazi era her sermons and devotion brought encouragement to persecuted German Jews. At 37 she met the love of her life, Rabbi Josef Norden. Only their love letters survived the Holocaust.