YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THIS

My movie is about three women who belong to what is historically refered to as the generation of perpetrators and victims. With their different stories of life, different narrations and memories they all belong to one family, my family.

YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THIS

by Nora Sternfeld

Anja Salomonowitz portays three women in her family who were young girls during the Nazi regime. All three have influenced the education of the director. They stood on different sides during the war and have their own interpretation of facts and history which reflect various collective memories. Hanka Jassy, the Director`s great aunt, survived Auschwitz. Gertrude Rogenhofer, her nanny, was a socialist and supported her uncle in the Resistance. Margit Kohlhauser, her grandmother, lived in Graz during the war. She did what the majority of citizens did about the terror regime of the Nazis: nothing.
The movie confronts the story of the family, examining the effects of history and the mechanisms of how it is passed on from one generation to the next. While the grandmother insists to have forgotten what happened, Gertrude Rogenhofer remembers the blank spots that were left by deported Jewish acquaintances. She tells us that: "of course people knew about the deportations". Hanka, on the other hand, is unable to express what she cannot forget.

Anja Salomonowitz confronts herself and her family with their various memories. Her film and commentary reflect the filmmaker´s contradiction of standing as much in the genealogy of the collective of victims and also of the collective of perpetrators. The Director reveals her attachment to her family as well as her effort to visualize the mechanisms of defence, denial, and story-telling and concealing. In putting her grandmother in the film and asking her questions, she is as much a granddaughter as she is a descendant of survivors.

TEAM

Camera: Leena Koppe

Sound: Markus Moll
Dramaturgical Consultant: Dieter Pichler
Sound Design: Philipp Kemptner
Music: Sami Zeciri
Line Producer: Elke Kratzer

A 2003, 35mm, 52 min., Colour

WITH

Gertrude Rogenhofer
Margit Kohlhauser
Hanka Jassy
Yael Salomonowitz
Ludwig Jassy
Josef Kohlhauser

FESTIVALS

Filmakademiefestival Wien International Student Film Festival: AUDIENCE AWARD
VIENNALE 2003 Vienna International Film Festival
ISFF, New York International Student Film Festival
Berlin, Arsenal Kino: Diagonalen. Kino zur Gegenwart aus Österreich
FIPATEL, Biarritz
EntreVues Festival du Film Belfort
Diagonale 04 - Festival des österreichischen Films 2004
Nyon - Visions du Réel: PRIX REGARDS NEUFS
Sehsüchte 2004, Internationales Studentenfilmfestival "Konrad Wolf"
19. Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München
Ingolstadt Filmfestival "Der Oktober ist eine Frau"
Poolbar Festival, Österreich
FEMINALE 2004, Köln
City of Women Festival, Ljubljana
Österreichische Filmwoche im National Film Institute (NFI), London
Jüdische Filmwoche Wien
Reihe Kurz:Film, RadioKulturhaus Wien
JIHLAVA IDFF 2004
Zagreb Film Festival 2004
New York Jewish Film Festival
Warschau Jewish Filmfestival 2005

Votiv Kino Wien ab 23. April 2004
Top Kino Wien ab 02.Oktober.2004
TV : 3 Sat, ZDF, May 2004

Oskar Kino Feldkirch
Ki&Ju-literaturwoche Wien, April 2005

41st International Exhibition of New Cinema, Pesaro Film Festival

Admiral Kino, Wien
Filmarchiv Wien: "Filmhimmel Österreich"
Paris - Austrian Filmweek

Im Rahmen der Reihe: "Wider das Verdrängen und Vergessen":
Volkshochschule Halbturn, Gols
Kapu Linz
Jüdisches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung, Wien
Volkshochschule Donaustadt
RE.F.U.G.I.U.S., im Rahmen der Tagung "Schuld ohne Sühne", Oberwart

World Jewish Film Festival, Tel Aviv
Filmoteca Española, Madrid, Österreich-Spezial
"Economyclass", Ausstellung, NAirobi, Kenia
Teil des Kunstprojekts "Minority Logbox" das Teil von "KÜBA - journey against the current" (Mai 2006 bis Juli 2006)