Kalte Heimat (1995)
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Traveling through towns and villages, the film interviews residents, including people who came from across the Soviet Union and settled in the region in 1945, and their descendants.
The story
The film travels through an unnamed region, interviewing people it encounters in towns and villages about their everyday lives, worries, and thoughts. Some came from various parts of the Soviet Union and settled in the abandoned region in 1945; others are their descendants. The interviews are paired with melancholic landscapes and subtle music, and with glimpses of crumbling village churches, preserved houses and barns, and romantic avenues. An unspoken tension surrounds the fact that Germans had lived in the region for many centuries, though the film does not seek to turn back time.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The film shows people in this region and asks them about their everyday lives, worries, and thoughts. In 1945, they had come from various parts of the Soviet Union to the abandoned region and settled here, or they are their descendants. Along the way, people who happen to cross the film crew’s path as it travels through towns and villages are interviewed with care. Cinematographer Thomas Plenert captures melancholic landscapes, further heightened by subtle music. The film draws its power from the unspoken tension surrounding the knowledge that Germans had lived in this region for many centuries, as it offers glimpses of crumbling village churches, preserved houses and barns, and the romantic avenues dating from that era—without any intention of turning back time.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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