The War in Me

Filmmaker Sebastian Heinzel was born in Kassel in 1979. In 2004, his first award-winning short film “Samagon” was presented at Kassel Dokfest. With his film, Heinzel portrayed an old woman in Belarus who, as a young girl during the Second World War, rescued her village from destruction by the Germans by burning schnapps. The film “89 Millimeter,” also filmed in Belarus, followed the next year.Almost 15 years later he has nightmares in which he, as driver of a tank, ploughs through forests and fires at people. He wants to know where these dreams came from, especially since he has never even worn a uniform. Heinzel sets out to search for the histories of his two grandfathers, who both fought in the war, and to investigate the roots of the silence in his family. He searches for behavioral patterns that perpetuate over generations and for “markings on DNA.” He gathers archive material and speaks with his father; together they travel to the places in White Russia where his paternal grandfather fought and possibly undertook war crimes. Is it perhaps no coincidence that he made his first film there? What experiences of the war generation do we carry in ourselves – and do we pass them on? With the help of scientists, therapists and authors, the director investigates how radical collective incidents such as flight, displacement and genocide are passed on two or three generations. New research in epigenetics suggests that experiences of enormous stress change genetic material. These findings show the inheritance descendants carry on their shoulders – oftentimes without being aware of it. In view of the people worldwide forced to flee from wars and international tensions, the film speaks of the long-term consequences of war, and of our task to address the problem so that healing and reconciliation become possible.… >>>