DOKUMENTARY ABOUT WAR, VIOLENCE, UNCONDITIANALY MOTHERLY LOVE AND SMOKING

Germany 2019  I  45 Minutes  I Idea,Photography,  Edit: Ulrike Korbach

The documentary "The pictures come at night" accompanies the former forced laborer Czeslawa Wölfel in the last months of her life.

The old lady lives in a retirement home near Bielefeld. She finds it difficult to come to terms with her new home. No one really has time. No time to preserve the recipes of her native Poland for posterity, or even to cook them. And certainly no time to listen. Yet it would be worthwhile to hear stories from more than 80 years of German-Polish life, in which the only reliable factors were violence and unconditional love for her children.
Czeslawa was born in Poland in 1927 and would have been able to go to grammar school. Instead, however, it led to Germany - into forced labor.

The film is characterized by Czeslawa's unsparing accounts of her extraordinary and yet historically exemplary life. Alternating with this are observations of everyday life in the style of cinema verité. The camera observes the family, which has retained a loving approach and a sense of humor despite the great challenges they face. It is always close, but never judgmental. This was made possible by the filmmaker's close relationship of trust with the family members. She has been friends with Czeslawa's children for more than twenty years.

TER THE END OF THE WAR, SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO GO.
She belonged to the group of so-called "homeless foreigners", or, as the British more aptly called them, "displaced persons". This was the name given to all those people who had to or were allowed to stay in Germany because they could not reasonably be expected to return to their former homeland. These were both foreign collaborators with Nazi Germany and forced laborers who were threatened with persecution due to the political situation in their home countries. Due to this status and the lack of alternatives, Czeslawa stayed in Germany for the time being, where she met her first husband, a Polish soldier.

"THAT WAS NOT AN EASY LIFE - NO, DEFINITELY NOT"
Czeslawa sums up at the end of her story. And yet she does not appear broken and has tried to give her children a bit of independence and strength in life. Even if she was not able to make up for everything, the loving way in which the surviving family members treat each other is evidence of enormous acceptance. Equally unusual is the mother's self-critical admission at the end of her life: "Perhaps if I had been a little braver..."

Festivals und Preise

1. Hauptpreis der Jury, Blicke, Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiets

Ich bin sehr gerührt und habe mich riesig über den 1. Hauptpreis beim Blicke-Filmfestival in Bochum gefreut.
Es ist nicht nur mein Preis, sondern auch der meiner supertollen Protagonisten, der Familie Wölfel, die mich während der Produktion des Films, davor und danach sehr warm aufgenommen und mir und dem Zuschauer einen Blick in ihr Leben ermöglicht hat.
Ganz herzlichen Dank dafür!
Ulrike Korbach