Once My Mother

(Niegdyś moja matka)

When Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz was seven years old, her Polish mother, Helen, abandoned her in an Adelaide orphanage. Sophia never forgot this maternal act of betrayal. Now in middle age, as Sophia examines her troubled relationship with Helen, she discovers the story behind Helen’s miraculous wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, her subsequent survival against the odds and the truth about an historic betrayal involving Stalin and the Allies. With Helen sliding into dementia, Sophia must confront her own demons. Did she ever truly know this woman who became her mother? Does she have it in her heart to forgive her? And is it too late?

Director: Turkiewicz, Sophia

Screenplay: Sophia Turkiewicz

Cinematography: Rod Freedman, Joanne Parker, Stephen Scheding, Rob George, Tim Walsh, Tony Wilson

Music: Cezary Skubiszewski

Film Editor: Denise Haslem ASE

Runtime: 75 minutes

Release Year: 2013

Genre: Documentary