The film centres around a knitathon being held at a vast and partially derelict carpet warehouse in Neasden, North London home to the World Jewish Relief Pomknits Project.  Here a group of women, whose wit and energy is undiminished by their own ill-health and worries, work together with creativity and dedication towards the target of knitting 5,000 blankets to send to men and women struggling to survive extreme poverty and temperatures in Eastern Europe.

WJR originally grew out of the work of the British Council for German Refugees set up in 1933 which organised the mass evacuation of Jewish children from Nazi occupied Europe known as the Kindertransport.  It’s primary purpose now redundant WJR now works to support those pockets of  Jews who have remained.

We caught on film snippets of conversations, reflections on childhood dreams and memories and the ties that bind us – sometimes expressing real hurt, anger and disappointment.  At the core of this film are the memories that we re-tell, tenuous and fragmented, mis-remembered and filtered, sometimes pushing against who we have become so that the stories which we choose to tell then become our ‘real’ history.

There is little talk about where the blankets are going.  But we see the hours of work and dedication that goes into each one of these beautiful blankets that they send off to men and women they do not know and we do not see.  This reveals a deep and heartfelt human connection that somehow does not need discussion.  The blankets are made and sent with real love.

Further information about World Jewish Relief can be found here: http://www.wjr.org.uk/

and the PomKnits Project here: http://www.wjr.org.uk/getinvolved/committees/pomknits/