Annie Barson

Jordan Bohn returns to her hometown after years away because being there reminds her of her abusive father. She runs into her ex-boyfriend, Ryan Smith, at the train station and they go to their old haunt, the diner. During lunch, Jordan realizes the past isn't really past.

Based her grandfather’s boyhood in St. Louis, Yasmin Gorenberg tells a story of the pain passed from refugee parents to their children and the hope that can overcome it. “40 Nickels” captures the image of a generation of immigrants to the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s and through that spotlights the effects of the 1919 pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is a film about parents and children: how trauma never leaves a family, and how hope and resilience is also passed down. It asks the question: Can a new generation look at the world with wonder rather than fear?