Flashback

In this deeply personal film essay, renowned documentary filmmaker Herz Frank takes the viewer on a journey through his past. Initially, Frank had conceived the film as a kind of sequel to his film "Ten Minutes Older" from 1978. Then, he had filmed the expressive face of a boy watching a puppet theatre play, in one sole take. Twenty years later he wanted to meet the boy again: The film was supposed to be called "20 Years Oldere". The little boy has turned into a handsome young man. Frank accompanies him to a big Bridge-tournament in Prague, but in the course of time the film increasingly becomes a documentary about Frank himself. You see photographs of his father who aroused his love for photography, hear stories about his family – a majority of which lost their lives during World War 2 -, and witness his grandson's circumcision. These at times cheerful, at times sad memories mix with current strokes of fate. Frank's beloved wife Ira who suffers from a serious illness, passes away one day. And Frank himself repeatedly expresses his irritation and astonishment concerning the ways of the world in meditative, poetic monologues.

Source: Filmfestival goEast 2003