Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne … forget the big city lights -- real life happens in between. Or so the quintessentially German “Heimatfilms" will have us believe. The GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Lightbox excursion "Heimat NOW" into the genre will shine a light on Germany from north to south and east to west and ask how films have reflected the country’s regionalism after reunification.
The word
Heimat is famously untranslatable, holding multiple complementary meanings in German — descendance, heritage, tradition, your culture, your tribe, your family, your language: all make up one’s own personal Heimat (as author Frank Goosen argued in our
interview on the topic). It is at the same time one of the most transcendental and universal terms, as everyone has a Heimat, or more than one, or a lost one, or a regained one, or a virtual one. The concept affords a wide range of important personal and group orientation -- identification, assurance, belonging-- but can become
controversial when bordering on or being hijacked to foster patriotism, nationalism, and propaganda.
The term
Heimatfilm has long entered the lexicon of international cinema and is constantly being reinterpreted, with a notable resurgence over the past ten or fifteen years.
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