Life Is Impossible Without Music

Biography

On the cold tracks of a train bound for Auschwitz, an 11-year-old boy, Simon Gronowski, jumps into the unknown — the only path that leads to life. His mother, who gently pushed him off the train, and his sister Ita, remain behind, in the silence that music would strive to fill many years later. Today, at the age of 94 — a doctor of law, attorney, and amateur jazz pianist — Simon, who once shared the stage with Woody Allen and his own jazz band, now performs alongside Kosta Jakić, a young Belgian classical pianist of Yugoslav roots exploring the role of music under extreme and inhuman conditions. Their hands on the piano tell two intertwined stories: one of survival, the other of listening. In their chords, epochs, languages, and memories converge, giving rise to a film about how music, when words fail, becomes the only way to speak of life. The film is dedicated to the memory of the crimes of the Second World War — and to future memories of the ongoing suffering in Gaza.