The Chicken Soup Connection

Truth be told, what Alexa Karolinski really wanted to do was write a cookbook. The scrumptious cooking of her grandmother Regina was something she could remember from earliest childhood. The grown-up Alexa became a filmmaker, however, so perhaps it makes perfect sense that she created a documentary instead. The resulting film, “Oma & Bella” (“Grandma & Bella”), tells the story of Regina Karolinski and her best friend Bella Katz, whom she got to know in a camp for displaced persons in the aftermath of WWII. For over sixty years now, these two ladies have been looking out for each other. All the while, they never stopped indulging a special, shared passion: good cooking, Yiddish style. Practicing the culinary knowledge passed down by their mothers and grandmothers was a way to re-connect with memories of times gone by. Regina and Bella do not share much that is private. But Alexa Karolinski gets them to open up and impart all sorts of precious anecdotes and wise observations from their eventful lives. The result is a moving portrait of two vital and worldly women, full of good cheer, but no strangers to sadness as well. Alexa Karolinski pursued her studies in London and New York. Berlin is the place she calls home, however, and not just because she grew up there. All the more fitting then, that “Oma & Bella” had its premiere at the Berlinale, Berlin’s International Film Festival.