Atlanta Jewish Film Festival: The Polish Women

A Jewish mother fleeing war-torn Poland seeking a better life, finds herself trapped in a brutal prostitution ring in 1917 Rio de Janeiro. Rebecca Shein (Valentina Herszage) arrives in Brazil with her son, hoping to reunite with her husband, only to learn of his death. Desperate to stay, she is deceived into working in a brothel where exploitation and abuse are daily horrors. Forced, in her fight for dignity and freedom, to betray her beliefs, her resilience becomes a symbol of hope as she refuses to give up protecting her son and reclaiming her life. With standout performances and immersive period design capturing the grim Rio underworld, this gripping drama exposes the overlooked historical injustice of the white slave trade that ensnared thousands of Polish Jewish women.