Annika Mayer

A story slowly reveals itself: a spattering of campfires and makeshift tents is actually a caravan heading to the US border in search of safety and a new life. Silent images and fragments of touching conversations calmly direct the viewer’s attention to individual destinies. What seems so abstract and far away, suddenly becomes close and alive.

Old Super 8 films show domestic happiness, the West German economic miracle, an idyllic home, grandmother Rose as a young woman at the centre. They do not show the violence in Rose’s marriage. Or do they?

Director Annika Mayer's mother mentioned to her one day that she wanted to dispose of the family's old Super8 film footage. Just in time, Annika is able to save the material from the 1950s and 1960s. The footage shows a model family of the post-war period in the FRG. This irritates her, since she knew about her grandmother's unhappy marriage. Upon closer questioning of her father and grandparents, she realizes the extent of the violence in her grandparents' marriage and her father's childhood.

A story slowly reveals itself: a spattering of campfires and makeshift tents is actually a caravan heading to the US border in search of safety and a new life. Silent images and fragments of touching conversations calmly direct the viewer’s attention to individual destinies. What seems so abstract and far away, suddenly becomes close and alive.

Old Super 8 films show domestic happiness, the West German economic miracle, an idyllic home, grandmother Rose as a young woman at the centre. They do not show the violence in Rose’s marriage. Or do they?

Director Annika Mayer's mother mentioned to her one day that she wanted to dispose of the family's old Super8 film footage. Just in time, Annika is able to save the material from the 1950s and 1960s. The footage shows a model family of the post-war period in the FRG. This irritates her, since she knew about her grandmother's unhappy marriage. Upon closer questioning of her father and grandparents, she realizes the extent of the violence in her grandparents' marriage and her father's childhood.

Director Annika Mayer's mother mentioned to her one day that she wanted to dispose of the family's old Super8 film footage. Just in time, Annika is able to save the material from the 1950s and 1960s. The footage shows a model family of the post-war period in the FRG. This irritates her, since she knew about her grandmother's unhappy marriage. Upon closer questioning of her father and grandparents, she realizes the extent of the violence in her grandparents' marriage and her father's childhood.