Mischling

In 1944, twin sisters Pearl and Stasha Zagorski reach Auschwitz alongside their mother and grandfather. In a place that has become unrecognizable, the girls cope by retreating into the secret language and make-believe games they shared as children, a bond that feels like their last refuge.

The twins are placed among the experimental group of twins that became known as Mengele's Zoo. There they receive favors and endure cruelties that no one else in the camp faces. Both girls change under the weight of guilt and suffering, and the single shared identity they once had begins to fracture. One winter, during a concert staged by Mengele, Pearl vanishes. Stasha mourns her sister but refuses to give up the hope that Pearl is still alive.

When the Red Army liberates the camp, Stasha sets out across a ravaged Poland with Feliks, a boy determined to take revenge for the twin he lost. Hurt, hungry and surrounded by upheaval, they keep moving, pushed forward by danger and hope in equal measure. Along the way they meet hostile villagers, Jewish resistance fighters and other displaced people. Their search is also fueled by the possibility that Mengele could be captured and brought to justice amid the ruins of the Warsaw Zoo.

As the young survivors piece together what has become of the world, they must try to imagine a future within it.