The movie Big Sonia tells the story of Sonia Warshawski, a woman who has been an inspirational public speaker at schools, churches and prisons, where her stories of surviving the Holocaust as a teenager have inspired countless students, prisoners and ex-cons who once felt their own traumas would leave them broken forever.
But when Sonia is served an eviction notice for her iconic tailor shop, which has thrived in the bottom of a now-abandoned mall for 35 years, she is confronted with an agonizing decision: either open up a new shop-at age 90-or retire. For a woman who admits that she stays busy “to keep the dark parts away”, facing retirement dredges up fears she’d long forgot she had, and her traumatic personal past resurfaces.
Following Sonia as she continues on the motivational speaker circuit (even as she navigates her own struggles) the movie Big Sonia explores what it means to be a survivor. Will you let your trauma define you? Or will your past make you stronger?
