Reinhardt Firchow

An elderly couple, Monika and Werner, lives in an apartment in Munich. One day they get a notice of termination due to the intended occupation by owner. The new landlord, a young mother, wants to move into the premises with her family.

Documentary that blends dramatized reconstructions, personal reminisces and newsreel footage to tell the story of the flight of German refugees through occupied France to Marseilles in 1940. In 1977 Ingemo Engström and Gerhard Theuring embark on a journey through France. They trace the escape route of the German emigration in France 1940/41, documenting the places, talking to witnesses, relating the temporal layers.

The story of Walerjan Wrobel, who was taken from occupied Poland to Germany for forced labor in 1941.

In 1974, the woman kills herself. I meet the man again in 1997. He still lives in the apartment he moved into 41 years ago with his wife and child. The apartment is almost unchanged. The man is my father. After that and over the following two and a half years, I make recordings with a DV camera. I observe the father, even following him on a boat trip through the Caribbean. The camera allows distance, but also closeness.

The tax officials Thiel and Kalübbe try to confiscate two oxen, but are prevented from doing so by protesting farmers led by the community leader Reimers. The assistant editor Tredup, who takes photos of the incident, is also in the thick of things.