The Lesson
MAN. 22.02. / kl 18:00 + intro & talk
En provokerende dokumentarfilm fra vore dages Tyskland, der får billedet af efterkrigens Tyskland, til at krakelere. Den udfordrer den officielle fortælling om, at skolernes Holocaustundervisningsplan vil føre til tolerance og forebygge racisme. Billedet er langt mere kompliceret. Instruktøren Elena Horn vender tilbage til sin barndomsby, følger Holocaustundervisningen i den lokale skole og bliver rystet. I en kommentar til sin egen film skriver Horn: “Vi bliver nødt til at konfrontere os selv med resterne af nationalstoltheden i de ældre generationers kollektive erindring og med den moderne højreekstremismes frembrusen.
Denne film fokuserer på de helt almindelige børn, der står midt i den splittelse. Jeg håber, at de, der ser filmen, vil indse, at fascismen langt fra er forsvundet men tværtimod i forskellige udformninger arbejder sig ind i samfundet. Og forstår, at det er nødvendigt at se det faktum i øjnene, for at kunne forebygge at historien gentager sig.”
Event
Intro af director Elana Horn + Talk af Educator Nilly Venezia efter filmen:
What lesson in the present can we take from the lesson of the past
Educators around the world are looking for the best way to teach the narrative of the Holocaust in order to try and prevent human evil events from happening again. Exploring that period and circumstances that led to a social reality in which inconceivable expressions towards minority groups were legitimate, is important and necessary. But is it enough?
Learning the history – The Lesson – is the basis, but not enough. In order to create a change, we have to observe and identify, with mature honesty and self-awareness, how human evil exists in each and every one of us – here and now. After watching the film, we will discuss two main questions:
- What present lesson can we learn from past history?
- What is individual’s responsibility to evolve a positive sense of selfhood of the other, in a multicultural society?
A short lecture on Heinz Kohut’s theory: The self-psychological theory developed by Kohut was an attempt to understand the buds of human evil as manifested in the two world wars, as a necessary duty for any person seeking to preserve humanity. Awareness to the sources of human evil, he believed, would lead to an understanding of each individual’s responsibility to serve as a self-object – any figure whose presence I experience as self-constitutive others.
Instruktør: Elena Horn
Sprog: Engelsk, tysk med engelske undertekster
År og land: 2020, Tyskland, UK
Genre: Dokumentar
Spillelængde: 72 min.