SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! Director Mitch Yapko’s Watching Walter, written by Mark Dylan Brown, uses a simple pocket watch as an allegory for time. That one watch lets the film tick back and forth between memory and survival, never letting you look away. Walter Wojnas (Stephen Tobolowsky) is a certified master watchmaker making a humble living running a small repair shop in Philadelphia. The camera pans around the shop, showing Walter grabbing small gears from a series of drawers and boxes, looking through a loupe, and chatting with a picture of his wife, whom he lost not long ago.
Walter’s solitude is broken when a new customer, Hermann Berghof (Gareth Williams), walks through the shop doors, hoping that Walter can fix a pocket watch, which is a precious heirloom. With confidence, Walter says, “Of course, but it will take time.” Disappointed, Hermann agrees to return in a few days. As Walter looks at Hermann’s watch, he is taken back in time as a little boy captured by a Nazi soldier and sent to the Stutthof Concentration Camp. During his time there, Walter was fortunate to work with the German master watchmaker and learn the craft, but not without hardships.
A pocket watch repair triggers Walter’s memories in Watching Walter.
“As Walter looks at Hermann’s watch, he is taken back in time as a little boy captured by a Nazi soldier and sent to the Stutthof Concentration Camp.”
Based on the life of the real Walter Wojnas, Watching Walter becomes an interesting parable of time. Here we see the timelines of world history running parallel with the life of a young man who survived one of the world’s worst atrocities and finds perspective in it. Yapko tells a tender and poignant story of humanity. It’s a story of survival, loss, hope, and even forgiveness, and it’s a pleasure seeing veteran character actor Stephen Tobolowsky in a leading role, taking command of the narrative.
In the end, Watching Walter is a reflection on the passage of time and how it molds and shapes us, even under the most extreme circumstances. It asks, with so little time left, what should we do with what remains?
Watching Walter screened at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
