Annäherung + Zeugin aus der Hölle

With an introduction by Merima Omeragić

Annäherung
Sonya Schönberger, Germany 2020/2021, 8 Min. without dialogue

Between 2012 and 2014, the Landesdenkmalamt (the authority in charge of Berlin’s monuments) and researchers from Freie Universität Berlin searched for traces of a Nazi forced labor camp that was located on the edge of Tempelhofer Feld from 1941 to 1945. Several objects and fragments were found, including 14,000 nails, rusted and bent, in a wide variety of sizes; a sober study of the ephemeral nature of memory traces. 

Gorke trave 
Zeugin aus der Hölle 
Živorad Mitrović based on the screenplay by Frida Filipović, Yugoslavia/BRD 1966, 83 Min. German OV

Irene Papas, known for the globally successful film Zorba the Greek, makes a star turn as Lea Weiss, a concentration camp survivor whose testimony is urgently needed to bring an escaped perpetrator and careerist in post-war Germany to trial. Shortly after the war, Lea told her story to journalist Bora Petrović. Petrović and a prosecutor from the Ludwigsburg Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes try to convince her to testify, 15 years after the end of the war. Yet, terrorized by henchmen of the perpetrator, Lea knows she is not able to relive her traumatic memories or reconstruct the suffering she experienced at the trial. A historically singular and ambitious film, it was co-produced by CCC-Filmkunst Berlin by Artur Brauner and Avala-Film Belgrade.

Merima Omeragić works at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo. The focus of her research is on women’s literature, film, and the history of women’s art. She deals with feminist, gender and queer studies, transnational studies, as well as the intersectional theory.