HEIMAT IS A SPACE IN TIME

 

HeimatIstEinRaumAusZeit©Thomas Heise


Thomas Heise

DE / AT 2019 | 218 min

D+B+Speaker: Thomas Heise
DOP: Stefan Neuberger | Montage: Chris Wright
SD: Markus Krohn | S: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer

Golden Sesterce, Nyon
Caligari Award, Forum Berlinale


www.heise-film.de


THURSDAY | 30 maY 7 p.m. |  filmmuseum Munich

HEIMAT IST EIN RAUM AUS ZEIT is a chronicle of textual legacies of the filmmaker's family, son of the philosopher Wolfgang Heise, who in turn is known to Wolf Biermann, Heiner Müller and Christa Wolf. A pull of memory consisting of words, film footage and photos, composed from the testimonies of four generations. It tells of the love, political ideals and upheavals of the 20th century.

The film is a monumental maelstrom of memory reminiscent of Victor Klemperer's diaries, dating back to before the First World War. In letters, the genealogy of the filmmaker's family is traced against the background of political events and the cultural and spiritual life of the GDR.

"The (East German) home country shows itself lost and bound to its past at the same time, hardly can it be located in the here and now. For Heise, home country or 'Heimat' is to be thought of as a topography of history and a silent witness to the upheavals in which private and political history are united. The film does not recount history. Instead, it creates a sense of what biography could mean." (Dunja Bialas)



Thomas Heise   
(*1955 in Berlin, GDR), writer, documentary filmmaker and theater director, became known as a chronicler of the German-German reunification. Among his essayistic documentaries are snapshots that capture the controversial political mood of the reunited country (DER IMBISS 1990, STAU 1992), and large oeuvres that, in an unmistakable style, connect the present with political states of German history (VATERLAND 2002) or contemporary history with the cultural life of GDR (MATERIAL 2009). Even with his early work WOZU DENN ÜBER DIESE LEUTE EINEN FILM? (1980), which he realized during his (abondend) studies at the HFF Potsdam, Heise demonstrated a feeling for underrepresented realities and hidden narratives.


Films
    Wozu denn über diese Leute einen Film 1980 | Das Haus 1984 |  Imbiß Spezial 1989/90 |  STAU – Jetzt geht’s los 1992 | Neustadt (Stau ­– Der Stand der Dinge) 1999 / 2000 | Vaterland 2002 | Im Glück (Neger) 1999/2006 | Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht 2007 | Material 2009 | Sonnensystem 2011 (6. UX) | Gegenwart 2012 | Städtebewohner 2014 | Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit 2019