Germany 1992: Rostock-Lichtenhagen in August, Mölln in November. Solingen and Lübeck follow. A wave of right-wing extremist attacks sweeps across the reunified country. In Mölln, the homes of two Turkish families go up in flames. Three people lose their lives and many others are injured. Thirty years later, in Mölln, Ibrahim Arslan finds out about a collection of letters stored away in an archive – letters written by members of the public in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, intended for the victims’ families, yet never delivered. The film brings to light the pitfalls of working in the archive and of the current archival turn by exposing the very power structures behind every kind of system or regime. Martina Priessner follows the Arslan siblings and other survivors, giving voice to those who have been silenced
for far too long. Her camera becomes a gesture of solidarity, capturing traumas that have worked themselves into the body. Although these attacks may have disappeared from the headlines, their impact clearly endures. Priessner uncovers a culture of remembrance that contemporary society is searching for once again. Her film portrays individuals who engage in meaningful dialogue and relentlessly challenge the closed-off authorities. The film does not separate the world into good and bad, but rather it creates a space where archivists expose themselves as gatekeepers of power and where a collective visit to the archives becomes an act of reclaiming personal history.