By Nurith Aviv
"Mourning is regularly the reaction to the loss of a loved person, or an abstraction which has taken the place of one, such as fatherland, freedom, an ideal, etc." - Sigmund Freud
Director Nurith Aviv quotes Freud's simple definition of mourning and loss as it relates to the first post-war generation of Germans and the historical experience of Jews. With the backdrop of a muted and autumnal Berlin, influential German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt and prolific actor Hanns Zischler (MUNICH) among others ruminate about the extinguishing of German Jewish life and culture and the lasting intellectual, moral and spiritual void that loss has meant to their fatherland.
Aviv, a noted cinematographer whose ancestors came from Berlin, has created an elegiac portrait of a homeland that can never exculpate itself from the ghosts of the Holocaust.
Reviews
~ "A briskly straightforward work, highly intelligent and ultimately quite moving." - George Robinson, The Jewish Week
~ "Anchored by a fascinating clip from a 1964 interview with an agitated, cigarette-waving Hannah Arendt, the film is an eloquent reminder of the ineluctable link between language and history." - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
~ "A gem…an exceptionally intelligent film." - Catherine Humblot, Le Monde
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