Chaos Dragon and the Light

Who are we -

when our identity is stolen?

As a young girl, Marika Henriques was hidden from the Nazis.

Now in her 80s, she tells her story for the first time.

The documentary’s themes of war, migration, and the refugee experience, are powerfully resonant today.

Winner of the Gradiva Award for Best Documentary

Watch the trailer

"The film’s cumulative impact is assaultive, inspiring, intriguing and moving by turns"

- Journal of Analytical Psychology

A survivor of the Holocaust, Marika became a Jungian therapist.

After a second trauma, in an outpouring of creativity, Marika made a series of searing, vibrant drawings and tapestries.

It was by making extraordinary art that her deep wounds were healed.

"Creativity is the answer, not bitterness"

Marika’s art traces a visionary psychological and emotional journey, from the re-discovery of a mute and terrified child, through the loss of her identity, to her perilous escape from communism.

"I am what I chose to become"

Marika's father's illustrated diaries recorded their lives in detail and throughout the second world war.
On the 19th of March 1944 the Nazis invaded Hungary.
Marika was hidden in a Budapest cellar, living in fear she had to pretend to be someone else.
On the 2nd of July Marika’s childhood home was bombed and completely destroyed.