Sousanna

Five-year-old Sousanna lives in a small but love-filled home in Pirgos, Greece. For her, life is a family that dotes on her, play at being a rich and heroic American, a community that watches out for her. Though often cold and always hungry, she’s too young to understand the devastation of her village from WWII, or the hardships of her parents as they try to rebuild their lives.

Then a stranger in a white suit approaches Sousanna’s father, Niko, with a startling proposition: he’ll take Sousanna to America to live in luxury. The idea is made bearable only by the stranger’s assurance that the situation is temporary. He doesn’t tell Niko that he’s already made arrangements for Sousanna to be sold to an American couple.

Sousanna is taken from her home to a foreign place called Oklahoma, where she’s adopted. Being an American, she discovers, is nothing like her game. Her new family takes away her culture, her language, and even her name. All she has left are her memories and her hope. Through the passing years, she continues to wait for her real father to find her—unaware of changes that mean home will never be the same.

Meanwhile, Sousanna’s birth family desperately wants her back. Finding her could prove impossible since, being illiterate and impoverished, they have no way to search for her. They fear their daughter is lost to them forever, but refuse to forget her.

SOUSANNA explores how far parents will go for their children, the strength of the bonds between them, and what constitutes “for the good of the child.”