Jetzt leben - Juden in Berlin

TO LIVE NOW - Jews in Berlin

No folkore, no rituals, no klezmer, no political statements, no twee Berlin Jewish quarters. This film is an attempt to make an imageless film; a plea for a religion of imagelessness, of words, of thoughts.

The images that are contained in the film are signs, signs of an inscription of a memory of what this city meant for Jews, namely the site of a second temple destruction - this time of a temple of living people. This film is unusual in that it asks the viewer and listener to make the effort to concentrate long and hard on an encounter with three people who came to Berlin from Odessa nine years ago. The mother, Anna Schnitmann, is the family′s breadwinner; she is the most sceptical, the least religious. The father, Michael Schnitmann, is an abstract painter of glowing colours; the film takes its aesthetic cue from his work and provides a reflective study of the traditions of Judaism. The son, Leonard Schnitmann, who was 16 years old when this film was made, is an astonishing personality who embodies the new Jewish self-confidence. He combines the hope of a young person with the insight born of several thousand years of experience.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH