CIFF Student Classic Film: “The Search”

“The Search” – A Mother’s Day Story of the Indomitable Love of a Mother Determined to Find Her Lost Son

Sunday, May 11 at 1 PM, the 2025 “War That Shaped Our World” CIFF Student Classic Film Series continues with director Fred Zinneman’s “The Search,” the story of “The Lost Children of Europe.” “The Search” features the Oscar nominated first feature film appearance of Montgomery Clift and a Special Juvenile Academy Award winning performance by nine-year old Ivan Jandl. The Search is also noteworthy as American immigrant, Austrian-born Jewish director Fred Zinnemann’s first box office success and as perhaps the first Hollywood feature film dramatizing the consequences of The Holocaust.

Following the War, orphaned children are moved to a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation camp in Germany. During an interview to determine his identity a young boy named Karel, separated from his mother at Auschwitz, is only able to say in broken German: “I don’t know.” While being transported to a second camp, some children panic. Karel and another boy escape by jumping in a river. As Karel’s companion drowns, Karel reaches the riverbank, but when only a hat is recovered UN officials presume he has drowned. Simultaneously, the audience learns his mother, Hanna, has survived the death camps and is searching for her son. While hiding in the city’s ruins Karel encounters an American soldier, “Steve” Stevenson (Montgomery Clift) who becomes determined to help the boy. Convinced his relatives are dead, Stevenson works on a plan to take Karel to the U.S. when his tour of duty ends in hopes of adopting him. The dramatic narrative intensifies as circumstances conspire with a mother’s indomitable love to resolve the drama: Will these two Holocaust survivors be reunited as mother and son?

Director Fred Zinnemann lost both parents to the Holocaust. In this documentary-style post-war feature, he creates a realistic cinematic account to dramatize the real-world plight of hundreds of thousands of orphaned children struggling to survive and the compassionate people working to help redeem their post-war lives. Nominated for three Oscars in 1948 including Best Best Director for Zinnemann, “The Search” is a movie you will never forget.

The complete 2025 Student Classic schedule and reservations are available on the CIFF website under the “Year-Round” dropdown tab. The screening is free and open to the public.