Project Detail

No Place on Earth

Synopsis

No Place on Earth brings to light an extra-ordinary true tale of survival that remained untold for decades. In 1993, Chris Nicola, an American cave enthusiast, was exploring the Ukraine's "gypsum giants," some of the longest horizontal caves in the world. Within this labyrinth, he came across signs of former human habitation: buttons, an old house key, a woman's dress shoe. Locals told him that during World War II, there were rumours of Jewish families hiding from the Nazis in the caves. No one knew what happened to them; over ninety-five per cent of the Jews in this region of Ukraine perished in the Holocaust. It took Nicola nine years to uncover the secret that the cave survivors had kept to themselves after emigrating to Canada and the United States. Now, they were ready to tell their story (TIFF 2012).

Details

Year
2012
Type of project
Features
Running time
81 mins
Director
Janet Tobias
Producer
Janet Tobias, Rafael Marmor, Paul Laikin, Nadav Schirman, Susan Barnett
Executive Producer
J. Flint Davis, David McKillop, Timm Oberwelland, Katja Zink, Jeff Field, Susan Werbe, Molly Thompson
Editor
Claus Wehlisch, Alexander Berner, Deirdre Slevin
Screenwriter
Paul Laikin, Janet Tobias
Director of Photography
Sean Kirby, Edu Grau, Peter Simonite, César Charlone
Composer
John Piscitello
Principal cast
Saul Stermer, Sam Stermer, Sonia Dodyk, Sima Dodyk, Chris Nicola

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Sierra/Tango Productions

323 W. 84th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10024
United States
Tel: +1 212-496-8633

Sales Company

Global Screen GmbH

Sonnenstrasse 21
Munich 80331
Germany
Tel: +49 89 2441295 500

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

The Recce The Recce

Director: Daniel Mann

Year: 2026

Drawing on a location test filmed in Uganda and an email exchange with the scout, this short film captures cinema’s ties to land and its entanglement with colonial imaginaries, binding the fiction of filmmaking with state-building. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Expanded - World premiere

Children No More: "Were and Are Gone" Children No More: "Were and Are Gone"

Director: Hilla Medalia

Year: 2025

Israeli peace activists hold silent vigils in Tel Aviv, displaying photos of Gaza's young victims. Despite facing public backlash, their wordless demonstrations powerfully highlight war's human cost. Official Selection DOC NYC 2025 Academy Awards 2026 - Best Documentary Short Film - Nomination

Chuuraa Chuuraa

Director: Evgenia Arbugaeva

Year: 2026

In the remote Siberian Arctic, an Indigenous Sakha scientist descends into the depths of the melting permafrost. Searching for an ancient creature, he makes his way through the dangerous, claustrophobic caves to the mythical realm of the Underworld. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere