The Keeper of Lost Words

She kept the secrets of others for decades. Now, is she ready to share her own?

1950s, Israel. After surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, Roika Tschapchik starts a new life at a kibbutz, raising her son on her own and devoting herself to work at the communal laundry house. But mostly, she keeps to herself, preferring the silent comfort of the laundry house over speaking to the other kibbutz members.

As Roika’s frail hands sift through her neighbors’ laundry, she finds discarded notes hidden in pockets; passionate poems describing an affair ending in tragedy. Love letters of a man yearning for the wife who left him. Goodbye letters from the couple who lost their only child. Through these notes, Roika learns everything she can about her community, uncovering their secrets, betrayals, and forbidden love affairs.

Available on: