There’s a lot you won’t find in this film. That’s the nature of it—one story trying to hold so many voices, so much history. You end up making impossible choices about what to leave out. Still, I’d say this is one of the most meaningful projects I’ve ever worked on. It’s deeply personal. It holds the memories—and the voices—of someone I love.
"Rose’s Revenge" is a short documentary about a Jewish mother and daughter in Budapest during World War II. It’s a close-up look at what it took to survive—and what survival actually cost—when the Holocaust turned their world upside down. The film follows Rose King Friedland from her childhood in Hungary through the nightmare of the war: forced labor, deportation to Auschwitz, and an unthinkable decision to hide her daughter Judith in a Catholic orphanage, never knowing if she’d see her again. After liberation, Rose left Auschwitz with three things: her hair, a diary, and a prison uniform. She reached Ellis Island with only five dollars to her name. Starting over in America, she clawed her way back—becoming a successful businesswoman, making a new life for herself in Miami Beach. She died in 2022, just shy of 100 years old.
Her reunion with Judith was fraught, but through all that heartbreak, mother and daughter forged a complicated, powerful bond.
The film does its best to honor their story—their hardships, the gut-wrenching decisions, the ache and stubborn hope they held onto. We use animation—breathing life into still photographs of Rose and Judith (with AI) —even reconstructing moments from the past that would be impossible to capture any other way. Alongside these, there are archival photos, haunting bits of found footage, interviews, and an immersive soundscape. All these elements help "Rose’s Revenge" bring to light the extraordinary journey of two women and the lingering moral and emotional shockwaves the Holocaust left on survivors and their families. At its core, this is a film about what it means to survive, how identity gets shaped by history, and the ways trauma ripples through generations
