Hedgehog tells the story of Hannah, a young hispanic caregiver, who accidentally discovers that one of her patients - Mr. Holtz, might be a former Nazi criminal, hiding under a false identiy. 

When Hannah decides to investigate, she ends up spending the entire night with Mr. Holtz, getting to know him and even befriending him. They drink together, play a board game and even go on a “date” in the empty dining room at sunrise. While getting to know Mr. Holtz, Hannah attempts to find the monster inside the jolly, helpless old man.

The film carries a tone of a suspence thriller. When Hannah learns that Mr. Holtz might be a former Nazi criminal, her night turns into a horrific nightmare as she attempts to befriend and expose evil.

In contrast with the horrific nursing home facility, Holtz’s room appears cozy and inviting. The film is designed to mislead the viewer into finding comfort in Holtz’s room, love his company and forget that he is suspected of horrific crimes. The shock comes at the very end when the viewer is suddenly confronted with the nature of Holtzl’s crimes and has no choice but to accept the chilling duality of good and evil in each and every one of us.

As a little girl growing up in Israel, the Holocaust was constantly present in the mind of every child for it is a collective trauma there. Personally I am a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, almost the entire families of my Grandparents on my father's side were murdered in the Nazi death camps. Out of all the questions that a child can ask when told about great horrors, there was one question which I have never stopped asking, and frankly that I still don't have an answer for. How could normal people, ordinary men and women, people with families, who loved music and sports, who had pets and celebrated holidays, how could they bring themselves to coldly murder hundreds of thousands innocent women and children? I think that what was always the hardest for me to accept was that no matter how hard you try to judge those people as very different from yourself, at the end of the day they were human beings just like us.
I wrote "Hedgehog" as an attempt to confront this question even further, by trying to find vulnerability, charm, and most of all humanity inside a man who committed terrible and unforgivable crimes. 
"Hedgehog" does not raise the question of forgiveness, because you can't forgive the unforgivable. "Hedgehog" raises the question of the existence of evil in each and every one of us.

WHY NOW?

We all watched in horror as Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd while Floyd was pleading for his life. A lot of us asked ourselves, how much hatred should someone have, in order to be capable of such cruelty?
In my opinion, one of the most terrifying moments of that murder was the ease in which Chauvin went back to the station to fill out a report of what to him was just another day at work... This in my opinion is a horrifying reminder that dehumanization of a group of people in a bureaucratic and institutionalized way, can easily lead to unimaginable cruelty as an everyday act. Unfortunately, the lessons arising from the ashes of the Holocaust are not yet learnd.   

How can you help?

"Hedgehog" was two weeks away from shooting when the pandemic hit. A year and a half later we are finally resuming. However, a few things changed for us. To begin with the nursing home which was our original location turned out of the question for safety reasons, and we are now shooting at a church, turning it into a nursing home. This increases our production design costs tremendously.

In addition, adhering to the new Covid safety regulations increases our budget by about 30 percent due to PPE, Covid officer and regular testing to all cast and crew.

Funding for short films is extremely difficult to come by and so we are inviting you - our wonderful community to join in the effort and become a part of our journey.

So... you can certainly help by donating to us today as well as sharing this page with others and spreading the word. If you know of people who specifically care about this topic and subject matter please help us make them aware of our project so they could join us in our journey of exploring those fascinating, yet difficult questions. 

Once we reach our eighty percent goal, writer director Ye'ela Rosenfeld will personally match ten percent of every donation to go to the USC Sohah Foundation. 

The mission of the USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry - and the suffering they cause - through the educational use of the Institute's visual history testimonies.

While "Hedgehog" is meant to hit the festival circuit like most short films, it also has a different and unique purpose, which is premiering at The Social Stage L.A

The Social Stage  is a creative home for radical thinking in which film, theatre, dance, fine art and music are paired with salon discussions over complimentary drinks.

"Hedgehog's" writer-director Ye'ela Rosenfeld launched it in 2019 and it opened with the sold out run of Howard Zinn's "Marx in Soho."

See your donation today as an advanced ticket to the 2021 re-launch of 'The Social Stage L.A" and be a part of our new and exciting artistic salon!