Jampel Productions' debut short 'The Red Shoe' premieres on Crafty Short Films

By Natalia Albin Legorreta

Directed by K. Lorrel Manning and written by Arielle Beth Klein, The Red Shoe is a historical fiction short inspired by the survival story of Klein’s grandmother during the Holocaust. The film centres on two Jewish teenagers, Fanye (Arielle Beth Klein) and Rivkah (Ali Stoner), who are forced to flee their hometown in Poland during the Nazi invasion.

“The Red Shoe is not only a film about a harrowing yet vital moment in our world’s history,” says Manning, “but also a film about extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and love.”

The short combines the tension of Fanye and Rivkah’s run through the woods, pursued by a soldier, with flashbacks to moments of levity before the war, and imagined futures that may never come to pass. As Klein explains, the intention was to “shed light on the psychological horror, the impossible decisions, and the lasting effects of war, these are real people with lives that were violently torn away.”

The Red Shoe premiered at the FLICKERS Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for the Hearts, Minds, Souls Award, and is now released by Crafty Short Films on YouTube.