The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers

THE STORY

On September 1, 1983, my grandmother Rosa Tursi, a feisty 72-year-old Italian immigrant, was watching her favorite soap opera, in her Montreal apartment when two guys who robbed a bank burst into her home armed with guns and a grenade and took her hostage.

My family has been telling this story for decades. But did this really happen as we remember it? Could it be that we’ve been exaggerating all these years? Or is the reality of what unfolded that day even wilder than any of us could have ever imagined?

In the short documentary The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers, I join members of my family to share our recollections of what happened that day to get to the truth. Along the way, a shocking discovery casts a whole new light on the incident.