Enter Joel.

Hana needs a friend. I thought it was going to be her housekeeper Hildegard. But today, finding this beauitful drawing by Jim di Bartolo, I'm feeling the need to go back to the original idea that her friend is Joel. He's the loyal, elderly family manservant.

So is Hana's back-story really believable?

Aged ten, Hana walks out of Auschwitz with her grandmothers sketchbook sewn inside of her little blue coat. She does not recover from the trauma of losing all her family in the camp, and as a result, as an adult, becomes deeply troubled and reclusive. She's an insomniac and has an obsession for locking doors. She is incapable of sexual intimacy, doesn't know how to give love to her daughter, is widowed and becomes bitter young, all of which lead her to lose self respect. She has only one friend in her life, Joel. Because of this inner chaos, Hana desperately tries to compensate by seeking approval and acclaim through her art.
At the end of the film, she will find her own inner heroine.

Despite serious odds, she will do this, and thereby complete an amazing character arc.