After watching the new documentary, Searching For Fritz Kann, with its multiple lenses through which the horror of the holocaust must be viewed, I spent a part of this morning reading an archival piece that I'd recommend to everyone, from the New Yorker, Hannah Arendt's February 1963 article, Eichmann in Jerusalem (here⇒), concerning the trial of Adolf Eichmann after his retreival from Argentina where I understand many Nazi's lived openly and boastfully. It is not an easy read.
Searching For Fritz Kann is a film about 3 generations of silence and remembering today. Marcel Kolvenbach follows in the footsteps of his grandmother's first husband: the German Jew Fritz Kann. He was deported in 1942 - exactly 9 months before the birth of the filmmaker's father - and murdered by the Nazis in Izbica.
Is Marcel Kolvenbach Fritz Kann's grandson or does he owe his existence to the fact that Fritz Kann was deported and murdered? The search for the deportees leads from a former slaughterhouse in Düsseldorf to a journey via Poland to Argentina and back to East Berlin. The choreography by the Israeli dancer Reut Shemesh creates an imaginary space that reinterprets the gaps in the family history.
Ahead of the Berlinale screening on Monday, 20th of February of Marcel Kolvenbach’s remarkable new film Searching For Fritz Kann, later this week OUTSIDELEFT will feature an interview with the film’s music composer Cassis B. Staudt. There’ll also be a review of this important work ahead of Monday’s showing and links to a ticket outlet for the screening and an overview for readers in German, English and Spanish with stills from the movie.
Searching For Fritz Kann has already been recognised with number of film festival prize awards and nominations including:
Audience award - Festival Internacional de cine judio de Uruguay
20th Punta del Este Jewish Film Festival
LÜDIA PRIZE, Kinofest Lünen, Germany 2022
Official Selection Buenos Aires Film Festival, Argentina 2022
Finalist "Best Documentary" Polish International Film Festival 2022
Finalist Near Nazareth Film Festival, Israel 2022
Nominated Deutscher Dokumentarfilm Musikpreis, DokFest München, Germany 2022
"Searching for Fritz Kann" is a production by publicnomad productions, funded by the Film - und Medienstiftung NRW and the BGAG Stiftung, the DGB NRW and the Düsseldorf Place of Remembrance. The film will be released in cinemas by Real Fiction.
Essential Info
CINEMA RELEASE GERMANY January 12, 2023
Distribution: REAL FICTION FILMS
Tickets for the Berlinale screening on Monday, 20th of February available here⇒
