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The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers

A film by Rosella Tursi

One Thursday afternoon in 1983, my grandmother Rosa Tursi, a 72-year-old Italian immigrant, was watching her favorite soap opera in her living room when bank robbers burst into her ground-floor Montreal apartment and took her hostage—at least according to my family. We’ve been telling this story for years. But did this really happen as we remember it? Have we all been exaggerating? Or is the reality even wilder than we ever could have imagined? In the short documentary The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers, I join members of my family to re-tell the story to get to the truth. Along the way, a shocking discovery casts a whole new light on the incident.


Winner Best Documentary Short at HollyShorts 2026

World Premiere at DOC NYC 2025



 

TRAILER

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Festival screenings

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HollyShorts, Los Ángeles, California

DOC NYC, New York

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Aspen Shortsfest, Colorado

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Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Montana

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