Ruth Beckermann’s exploration of her own family past is both the story of the Central European Jews and a history of the region. Her journey takes her from Vienna, where her grandmother lived in hiding during the war amongst the Nazis by posing as a deaf-mute, to the landscapes of Eastern Europe, a place that witnessed the extermination of Jews and yet is still pervaded by the humour of the few remaining survivors. The homecoming ends on the streets of Vienna in the midst of Kurt Waldheim’s election campaign, where anti-Semitism once again reveals its ugly face.

Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 91min - 1987 - Austria

"No, this is not a documentary film. This is a vital work that elevates the art of film beyond its similarities with poetry, narrative storytelling, and introspection by placing the most subtle means of conveying metaphor and metonymy in the service of the desire to preserve." - Hélène Cixous, 2006

"shows the relationship between history and memory...reveals, for a few minutes at a time, fascism at work" - Alexander Horwath, Falter