• Producer(s):

    SECONDE VAGUE PRODUCTIONS, ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Europe.

  • Production year:

    2014

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

4 authors with converging perspectives on a Germany at the heart of all identity issues: Christoph Hein, Wladimir Kaminer, Bernhard Schlink and Emine Sevgi Özdamar. How does a country that experienced such sombre periods during the 20th century inspire its writers?

The works of each one of these authors is rooted in the multiple historical dimensions of a country transformed in the space of 45 years by the end of Nazism, the traumatic separation into two camps, and the ups and downs of a sudden reunification. 
For Bernhard Schlink, the role of post-war literature consisted of giving voice to a mute generation, confronted with horror. The following generation, active from the 1970s, was all the more inhabited by the weight of its heritage. This is the case for Christoph Hein, whose work combats those who filter German history. He shares Wladimir Kaminer’s creed: "What remains is what we manage to write”, that telling stories is of the highest value. For the woman writer Emine Sevi Özdamar, who is of Turkish origin, words bring the dead back to life, restoring them to their personal relationship with history.