No Place on Earth
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJanet Tobias
Written byJanet Tobias
Paul Laikin
Based onWe Fight to Survive by Esther Stermer
Produced byJanet Tobias
Susan Barnett
Zita Kisgergely
Paul Laikin
Rafael Marmor
Nadav Schirman
StarringChris Nicola
Saul Stermer
Sam Stermer
Sonia Dodyk
CinematographyCésar Charlone
Eduard Grau
Sean Kirby
Peter Simonite
Edited byDeidre Slevin
Claus Wehlisch
Music byJohn Piscitello
Distributed byMagnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • September 10, 2012 (2012-09-10) (TIFF)
  • April 5, 2013 (2013-04-05)
Running time
83 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Germany
United States
LanguagesEnglish
German
Yiddish
Box office$200,238[1] (North America only)

No Place on Earth is a 2012 documentary film produced, written and directed by Janet Tobias, based on Esther Stermer's memoir We Fight to Survive. It was released theatrically in the United States on April 5, 2013.[2][3]

Synopsis

In 1993, NYPD officer and caving enthusiast Chris Nicola visited Ukraine to explore the Verteba and Priest's Grotto caves, and found evidence that they had recently been inhabited by humans. After discovering that the caves were used by three Jewish families (Stermer, Dodyk, and Wexler), comprising 38 people, led by matriarch Esther Stermer (1888–1983), escaping The Holocaust, he embarked on a decade-long quest to find survivors. The film features interviews with some of the 36 survivors and/or their descendants, now living mainly in New York City and Montreal. It includes a segment in which Tobias brings some of the survivors, the oldest of whom was a nonagenarian, back to the caves.[4]

Release

The film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and the Jewish Film Festival Berlin.

Accolades

Its screenwriters, Janet Tobias and Paul Laikin, were nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.[5][6]

Cast

References

  1. ^ "No Place on Earth (2013)". Box Office Mojo. 2013-08-08. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  2. ^ "No Place On Earth". Magnolia Pictures. February 19, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  3. ^ Elizabeth Horkley (2013-04-26). "The story of two Jewish families who lived in caves to escape Nazis". Philly.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  4. ^ Derviskadic, Dado (March 18, 2013). "511 Days of Total Darkness: The Incredible True Story Behind the Documentary No Place on Earth". TheCredits.org. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  5. ^ "Writers Guild Awards". Archived from the original on September 1, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  6. ^ "The Stermers - Dig Deeper - No Place On Earth". Noplaceonearthfilm.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.

External links


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