Interview | Thomas Heise 

Check entire article: www.filmexplor...
[…] The accurate selection of the archive material aims to reveal the vibrancy of life (humour included) and the oppression of History. The dialectic between the personal and the historical is the central focus of Heise’s inquiry into the story of his family
[…] We once again discover the importance of cinematography: the recurrent theme of the freight trains, the absence of persons, and the homogeneity of the (slow) speed of any movements on the screen (the movement of the trains or the movement of the camera) convey a sense of inevitability that seems to physically embody the slow and gigantic movement of History as smugly disdaining the destinies of individuals.
[…] Thanks to this long and vivid cinematic journey through history, we realize with rare clarity how much the violence of war has been a thread that comes to our times without interruption, and is still the more appropriate perspective by which to read the present, even in (the current, apparently peaceful) Europe.