Back to the Fatherland(2019)

Plot Summary

• Life in Israel is stressful. However, this is not the only reason why young people turn their back on the "holy land". As secular, liberal Jews they are tired of being ignored as a minority without a voice in Israel's society. Gil and Kat, both filmmakers, struck up a friendship during their time at college in New York City ten years ago. Gil comes from Israel, Kat from Austria. Their families' history is strikingly different. Gil is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Kat one of a Nazi officer. This is the framework within which we met three Israeli grandchildren and their respective grandparents: The two filmmakers visit Gil's grandfather Yochanan. Gil toys with the idea of moving to Berlin. She is afraid of Yochanan's reaction. At the age of 15 his parents made him leave Germany in order to be safe in Israel. He never saw them again. As to this day Yochanan harbors a deep distrust of Germany and considers Germans to be unteachable anti-Semites. He reacts to Gil's plan with only one short sentence: "No, never!" Yochanan's response and the exodus of many young secular Israelis to Germany and Austria prompt Gil and Kat to embark on a journey: To find other grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who have moved to Germany and Austria. The two filmmakers want to explore how the grandparents reacted to their grandchildren's decision. Eventually they find Dan and Guy. The two young men have already made the very same decision Gil still struggles with. They took the leap to live in Germany and Austria. Dan, a young sculptor, moved to Berlin a few years ago. His beloved grandmother Lea can't understand his decision nor can she condone it. Dan decides to ask the 91 years old woman to take a trip to Vienna with him, to the city of her childhood. He hopes to get some answers to questions that have troubled him. Suddenly long standing problems seem to dissolve effortlessly. Who would have thought that Lea's return to the places, where she had experienced so much pain, would facilitate reconciliation between the generations?

Storyline

• BACK TO THE FATHERLAND is a documentary film that tells the story of young people leaving their home country to try their luck somewhere else. A common tale these days if these young women and men weren't from Israel and if they wouldn't be moving to Germany and Austria, where their families were persecuted and killed.