27 November - 3 December 2009 
 

GERMAN DOX
 Wednesday 2 December 16:00 
The screening will be preceded by the short Mama L’Chaim


Gerdas Schweigen
 GERDA’S SILENCE  SURVIVING THE ANGEL OF DEATH  

Gerda’s Silence is a thoughtful portrait of a tenacious woman who grew up in Nazi Germany and survived the horror of the Holocaust.

As a child, journalist Knut Elstermann once asked his “aunt” Gerda, a former neighbour and friend of the family who was now living in the US, about her child – to the shock and horror of everyone present. Years later, and still troubled by the unanswered question, he decides to contact Gerda again and after thoughtful and delicate probing she agrees to meet with him. Finally feeling ready to talk, their meetings and conversations became the key to unlocking Gerda’s past life. After 60 years she is able to reveal her most intimate, closely guarded secret. A secret she never felt able to share with her late husband nor with her American-born son, who like many children of survivors suffers from the deafening silence, which has shaped his life.


Britta Wauer studied Directing at German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) and successfully graduated in 2004. During her studies, Wauer worked as an assistant director for Jutta Brueckner and for Helmut Dietl. Her pre-diploma film Heldentod (2001) won several awards; and her graduation film Die Rapoports – Unsere drei Leben (2004) was shown on TV and won the Grimme award. In 2005, Britta Wauer set up the production company Britzka Film and finished the documentary film Berlin Ecke Volksbuehne (Berlin: A Square, a Murder and a Famous Communist) for her production company. In 2008, she adapted Knut Elstermann’s autobiographical book Gerdas Schweigen into a screenplay and directed the film for the big screen.


  
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If you are unable to make the screening of Gerda's Silence in our festival, please note that the film is also screening as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival on
 Monday 9 November 19:00 and
Wednesday 18 November 18:45
at the Odeon Swiss Cottage.


Director
Britta Wauer
Screenplay
Britta Wauer, based on Knut Elstermann’s book
Director of Photography
Kaspar Koepke, Bob Hanna
Editor
Berthold Baule
Music by
Karim Sebastian Elias
Producers
Volker Hahn, Birgit Mehler,
Rosemarie Wintgen, Andrea Kluting
Production Company
Zeitsprung Entertainment/Cologne,
in co-production with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg/Berlin+Potsdam, in association with Schenk Productions/New York, Atlantic Television/New York
Participants
Gerda Schrage, Knut Elstermann,
Steven Schrage, Helga Elstermann,
Dorle Specht, Marisa Rosenthal

Length/Format
90 min, colour
Festival Screenings
UK Jewish Film Festival 2009,
Doc Aviv, Israel 2009,
Tallahassee Film Festival 2009
Awards
Best Music, Kinofest Luenen 2009, Audience Award, Schweriner Film Kunstfest 2009
Original Version
German
Subtitled Version
English
With backing from
German Federal Film Board (FFA), BKM, Medienborad Berlin-Brandenburg, DFFF
World Sales
Beta Cinema/Dept of Beta Film GmbH