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Greenhorn is a powerful film that gives human dimension to the Holocaust. It poignantly underscores our flawed humanity and speaks to the healing value of friendship. Greenhorn, adapted from the childrens novel of the same name, is based on the true story of an 11-year old Holocaust survivor named Daniel who arrives at a Brooklyn yeshiva in 1946. He is befriended by Aaron, a boy with a stutter, and the two of them stand up to the bullies who make fun of them, Aaron because of his stutter and Daniel because of the small box (his only possession), with its terrible secret that he wont let out of his sight. Daniel, the young survivor, rarely talks, but the narrator, a stutterer who bears the taunts of the other boys, comes to consider Daniel his friend. The mystery of what is in the box propels this short film, but it is in the complex relationships of the school boys that the human story is revealed. In the end, Aaron, the stutterer, finds his voice and a friend in Daniel, and their bond offers hope for a future life of dreams realized, one in which Daniel is able to let go of his box.
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