Cinema documentary by Karin Kaper and Dirk Szuszies at CineStar Wismar.
© kim
Walter Kaufmann © kim
"Walter Kaufmann - What a life!": A life of a century in 101 minutes, cinema documentary by Karin Kaper and Dirk Szuszies/Walter Kaufmann on his 100th birthday
Special screening in Wismar at CineStar on October 17, 2024 at 7.30 pm in the presence of director Karin Kaper, in cooperation with the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Center for Political Education, additional school screenings on October 18, 2024 with the director.
The film sheds light on the life of the Jewish writer Walter Kaufmann, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz and who himself was saved by the Kindertransport to England. Novelist, sailor, correspondent and political activist: the life of Walter Kaufmann, who was born in Berlin and died on April 15, 2021 at the age of 97, reflects historically significant events in a unique way. He was a man who wanted to understand, describe and change the world.
After many years of exile in Australia, he made a conscious decision to live in the GDR in 1956. Thanks to his Australian passport, which he kept for the rest of his life, he traveled the whole world as a true cosmopolitan. The film follows the main lines of his life: the catastrophic consequences of National Socialism, the civil rights movement in the USA, the trial of Angela Davis, the revolution in Cuba, the atomic bombs dropped in Japan, the never-ending story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the collapse of the GDR. All topics that still concern us today.
The film makes it impressively clear how Walter Kaufmann fought until his last breath against the frightening shift to the right and the increasing racism and anti-Semitism of our time. It is comforting that the legacy of this great contemporary witness will not only be his books, but also the documentary film, which will captivate viewers old and young.
Volker Dittrich
Walter Kaufmann © Volker Dittrich
www.walterkaufmannfilm.de
World premiere Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg, August 2021
Documentary film competition 30th Filmkunstfest Schwerin, September 2021
Leipzig Film Art Fair, September 2021
Leipzig Global Film Festival, August 2022
DEFA Film Festival Merseburg, April 2023
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag
321-2021: 1700 years of Jewish life in Germany e.V.
FFA and Kurt and Hildegard Löwenstein/Losten Foundation
in cooperation with the International Auschwitz Committee e.V.
FSK: from 12 years, length: 101 minutes, production and distribution: Karin Kaper Film Berlin
