It couldn’t be more up to date. Therefore, we have programmed the film by the great documentary filmmaker TAMARA TRAMPE as the closing film of our festival.

Save-the-date: April 3, 2022, 9 p.m. Filmforum NRW, Free admission

Tamara Trampe, who died in November 2021, has dealt with the long-term effects of war on people in her films. In the documentary film My Mother, a War and Me (DE 2014, 78′) she and Johann Feindt recall the life story of her mother, who comes from the Ukraine. She was a nurse in the Red Army during World War II and gave birth to her daughter Tamara in the middle of winter in 1942 at the front in Ukraine.

Only a few years before her death was she able to talk to her daughter about her war experiences. For the film, Tamara Trampe travels to Ukraine and meets other former combatants who defended their country against the Wehrmacht under cruel conditions. The parallels to the current war in Ukraine are obvious. From personal memories, conversations with contemporary witnesses and historical material from the front, Tamara Trampe puts together the mosaic of her origins and draws connections to the present. Almost seventy years after the end of the Second World War, the emotional wounds are still palpable. My Mother, a War and Me draws a central piece of contemporary history of the 20th century, which has been shockingly topical since February 24th.

We are showing the film, which makes the darkest epoch of our history so accessible, at the end of the festival as a tribute to this great documentarian and as a memorial for peace.