The Second Attack

“Before the NSU Tribunal, which took place in May 2017 in Schauspiel Köln (Cologne Theatre), I had contact with relatives of victims of xenophobic murders for the first time. Ibrahim, Osman and Gülüstan embody different generations that were attacked in Germany. Their experiences of anguish are based on the direct loss of closest relatives through right-wing terror. How do they deal with their grief? What are their demands and their visions for the future? What are they fighting for, and how? How do they rate Germany’s changing political climate? How do other people with migrant backgrounds experience the attacks on their communities? With The Second Attack it was important for me, to give the protagonists the chance to present their own perspectives. All too often, the stories of the people concerned have been pushed to the periphery; the people were spoken about instead of speaking with them.” (Mala Reinhardt) With in-depth interviews, the film develops a precise picture of the traumatic experiences the protagonists went through. Osman Taşköprü speaks of the murder of his brother Süleyman, carried out 2001 in Hamburg by the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Ibrahim Arslan describes his recollections of the racist arson attack in Mölln in 1992, which he himself only just survived. And Mai Phýõng Kollath lived in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, in the so-called “sunflower house” – a high rise with a sunflower mural on its wall – as it was set to fire by neo-Nazis amid the applause of hundreds of onlookers. Considering the continuing racist riots, the insufficient clarification of the NSU affair, and the entry of far-right political party “Alternative for Germany” into the political landscape of the Federal Republic, Mai Phýõng, Ibrahim und Osman made a decision: they won’t be silent any longer. Their stories interweave and, as they advocate for complete clarification and an end to the violence, a network of people with similar experiences emerges. The Second Attack brings together these stories in a complex narrative style and offers a detailed view of the battle of migrant communities against racism in Germany. Ayşe Güleç, protagonist in the film, has worked as a social educator in the social/cultural center “Kulturzentrum Schlachtho”f in Kassel since 1998. Her workplace isn’t far from the internet café where Halit Yozgat was murdered in 2006. She is one of the initiators of the NSU Tribunal.… >>>