Filmtank

Twice in her life, my mother sank into a deep depression: once in the early fifties following the sudden death of my father, the second time just over ten years ago, already a pensioner, when my step-father died.
Some time ago, she started expressing her memories in the form of fragmentary stories and songs. The recurring subject-matter of these cryptic stories is severe trauma: during the war, when she was a young girl, she was witness to scenes of extreme violence, and after the war her shock at the unexpected death of her husband was dealt with violently with electroshoc treatment.
No word was spoken in our family about these events for decades. Now, at the age of seventy-five, my mother is laying out a trail which leads back to her memories.
The film will follow this trail, attempting to decipher it, and, based on the biography of one individual, will examine the perpetuation of collective injuries and the attempts made to heal them.

D
2004
75 mins.
Arte