JIFF: My Underground Mother

My Underground Mother

 “...by shining a new light on the strength of female survivors, My Underground Mother shows that telling the hard truths can also be heroic.” – Forward

Australian Premiere

In this absorbing and intimate documentary, New York journalist Marisa Fox delves into her mother’s secret past, discovering revelations about her life before and during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Twenty years after her mother’s death, Fox uncovers a family secret, which leads her to believe the woman she knew as Tamar, a redheaded freedom fighter in British mandate Palestine, had a hidden identity. Chasing down leads across four continents, Fox locates the remains of a Jewish women’s slave labor camp in a remote Czech town and confronts proof that she had been a Holocaust survivor, which Tamar always denied. As Fox unravels the truth, she must reckon with the shame that silenced her mother and her camp sisters, and grapple with her newfound legacy as a daughter of a survivor.

Spanning Israel, Poland and beyond, over 15 years of relentless sleuthing, this gripping, first-person narrative weaves together testimonies including interviews with Gabersdorf survivors living in Australia, striking animation, and absorbing vérité footage of a daughter’s attempt to learn and come to terms with a parent’s unreconciled legacy.

Festival Appearances/Awards
Boca International Jewish Film Festival 2026 – Winner, Best Holocaust Documentary
Râșnov Film & History Festival, Romania – Audience Prize
Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media, Docs & Dialogue – Winner, Best Feature Film
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival – Winner, Best Documentary

Rating

Unclassified 15+

Duration

89 min

Country

United States

Language

English

Director

Marisa Fox

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