Im Land meiner Eltern

In the Country of My Parents

Retrospective 2024

Filmmaker Jeanine Meerapfel has been the president of Berlin’s Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) since 2015. She was born in 1943 in Argentina, where her parents fled to escape fascism in Europe. She has lived in Germany since 1964. In 1981, two years after the mini-series Holocaust aired, she interviewed Jews of her generation in West Berlin about their Jewish identity – including stage director Luc Bondy, painter Sarah Haffner and screen legend Eva Ebner. Shot in their kitchens, living rooms and studios, at family gatherings or at work, they talked about feelings of home and their fears, about the lack of reckoning with Nazi crimes, and about xenophobia and anti-Semitism in the present day. Some of what they said is shockingly topical. “For me, it has a lot to do with the fact that, in schools, they talk about the Holocaust, but not about Jewish culture and religion and what they mean. As long as they are not dealing with that, in order to establish understanding, there will be misunderstanding and hate.” (Jeanine Meerapfel, 2022, Federal Agency for Civic Education, bpb.de)

by Jeanine Meerapfel
with Anna Levine, Luc Bondy, Meier Breslav, Eva Ebner, Sarah Haffner, Jakob Lichtmann, Regine Lichtmann, Hazel Rosenstrauch Federal Republic of Germany 1981 German 87’ Colour & Black/White Documentary form

With

Anna Levine
Luc Bondy
Meier Breslav
Eva Ebner
Sarah Haffner
Jakob Lichtmann
Regine Lichtmann
Hazel Rosenstrauch

Crew

Director	Jeanine Meerapfel
Screenplay	Jeanine Meerapfel
Cinematography	Peter Schäfer
Editing	Heidi Murero
Music	Jakob Lichtmann
Sound	Hans Schmitz

Additional information

DCP: Deutsche Kinemathek