Synopsis
In the beginning was a broken taboo: the boy Knut asked his "aunt Gerda"from Amerika who was on a visit to the GDR what had become of her child
that nobody ever dared to mention. Horrified silence around the coffee
table. Knut felt confused and ashamed – he would never forget this sunday
afternoon. 30 years later, Knut Elstermann sees Gerda in New York and asks
the same question again. She tells him about close family ties and friendships
of the pre-war era, about Jewish friends' and aquaintances'survival, but
also about deportation and death. It is the story of a search for truth in files,
in testimonies of contemporary witnesses and her memory.
Filmmaker Britta Wauer followed up Gerda's story. Based on Gerda's encounter
with Knut, his persistent questions which finally got an answer, she
creates, with great respect and unmistakable affection for her protagonist,
the portrait of a woman who with a defiant courage to face life built a new life for herself after
Auschwitz. The starting point of this new life was her silence about the end of the old one – a silence
which Gerda never broke, even with her son Steven, until her conversations with Knut Elstermann ...
Contact:
Zeitsprung Entertainment GmbH
Alter Militaerring 8a
50933 Cologne, Germany
tel.:+49 (0) 221-9498020
info@zeitsprung.de
www.gerdas-schweigen.de
Distrubution:
www.pifflmedien.de