Tacheles! The Heart of the Matter

Synopsis

Yaar associates Judaism with nothing but victims who allowed themselves to be led to the slaughter. He accuses his father of suffering from the Holocaust although he never even experienced it firsthand.

Yaar rebels by developing a computer game: “Shoah. When God was asleep”. Together with his friends Sarah and Marcel he creates a 1940s Germany in which Jews can defend themselves and Nazis can act humanely. His father is shocked.

Yaar decides to model the main character of the game, a Jewish girl, on his grandmother Rina. Her opponent is an SS officer, who is inspired by one of Marcel’s ancestors. The friends agree: the old assignment of victim and perpetrator roles prevent them from being able to do what they so desperately long for: to move on! The past should finally be left behind them. Together with his friends he visits Rina’s birthplace, Krakow, and uncovers a terrible family secret.

The three realize that the past is strongly connected to them – the grandchildren of the victims and perpetrators. Thus begins a painful confrontation with their own history.

Yaar has to find his way between the trauma of preceding generations and his own claim to an unburdened life.

About the Directors

Jana Matthes and Andrea Schramm work as directors and producers for arte, 3sat, ARD and ZDF. After having studied journalism in Leipzig and directing in Potsdam- Babelsberg they founded SCHRAMM MATTHES FILM.
They portray complex political and social developments in radically personal stories.

Many of their films have been screened on international festivals and won prizes, such as the ‘DEUTSCHER FERNSEHPREIS’ (‘German Television Award’) and the Discovery Channel Award.