Heimat is a Space in Time (GER 2019, Thomas Heise)
GER/AUT 2019, Director: Thomas Heise, Director of Photography: Stefan Neuberger, Montage: Chris Wright, GMFilms, DCP, Originalversion (deutsch), 218′
In a long exchange of letters between Berlin and Vienna, the upcoming deportation announces itself. The images show the meticulous deportation lists of Nazi bureaucracy. When the correspondence falls silent, we hear Marika Rökk’s grotesque Nazi pop song “Mach dir nichts daraus”. HEIMAT IS A SPACE IN TIME is a collage of filmmaker Thomas Heise’s intellectual family’s legacies. A composition of text documents, film records and photographs of four generations. The story is about love, attachment, selfassertion and political ideals – against the backdrop of the political upheavals of the 20th century. Correspondences and diary entries take our eyes – and first and foremost our ears – on a journey extending from German Empire to Weimar Republic, to National-Socialism, to divided Germany up to the present. Archive material and present-day footage are shown. Then, in black-and-white, the camera glides through abandoned placed and rooms estranged by time. Here, home is not just a romantic place, but the matter which sparks inner and outer fights of involved parties. Individual history cannot be separated from community. The film does not seek to retell stories. Instead, it shows how biographies emerge.
In the presence of Thomas Heise
22 April, 4 pm – Schaubühne Lindenfels – € 8 (7 red.)
Excerpt