Films by Jan Gabriel

Germany 2019, 79 min
by Kai Ehlers

Free State Midpoint portraits the hermit Ernst Otto Karl Grassmé, who was a victim of eugenics. During the Nazi regime he was forcibly sterilized and disenfranchised. As a result he spent the rest of his life in the woods. His letters to a teenage girl from the neighbourhood and records of prolonged legal battles provide insight into his struggle for a dignifed life. It continued in post-war Germany, which refused to give him recognition and reparation. Using a transzendental style the film rais