VORPREMIERE Dokumentarfilm "DIE MÖLLNER BRIEFE" mit Gästen

Preview of the documentary film "The Mölln Letters" by Martina Priessner

In the presence of Ibrahim Arslan (survivor) and in cooperation with "Kein Schlussstrich, Bremen"

In November 1992, a racist arson attack on two residential buildings in the small town of Mölln destroyed the lives of İbrahim Arslan and his family. Seven-year-old İbrahim and other family members, some of whom were seriously injured, survived. But his sister, his cousin and his grandmother died.

The murders in Mölln took place during a wave of racist attacks, accompanied by widespread social agitation against refugees. But there were also thousands of people who expressed their solidarity and empathy, their shame and shock, and wrote letters to those affected by the attack - but they never arrived. It was only in 2019, 27 years after the attacks, that it became known by pure chance that thousands of letters were stored in the Mölln city archives, offering comfort and courage to the affected families and showing how widespread the anger towards the right-wing extremists was. This concealment fits in with the ignorance that the victims of the attack experienced from the very beginning. What if the whole thing was just part of Turkish internal criminality, as the media and police suggested?

Martina Priessner accompanies Ibrahim Arslan in his search for the authors of these letters and seeks answers as to why the letters disappeared. While Ibrahim has found a way to deal with the crime through his commitment against racism, his brother Namik is still struggling to come to terms with it. A story of trauma and remembrance, but also of solidarity that has been forgotten today and the struggle to make the voices of the survivors heard.

An event in cooperation with "Kein Schlussstrich Bremen".

Awards & Festivals:

World premiere 75th Berlin International Film Festival / Panorama section
Winner of the Amnesty Film Prize
Winner Panorama Audience Award
Opening film of the International Women's Film Festival Dortmund-Cologne

Ibrahim has to fight for the letters, not all of them are handed over at first, those addressed to the city administration have to be requested again. Ibrahim meets some of the women who wrote the letters at the time, which are moving encounters. Priessner shows some of the letters in her film, drawings by children who are visibly shaken by the terrible events, angry letters about the neo-Nazis, shameful lines from those who no longer recognize their country. (Harald Mühlbeyer, www.kino-zeit.de)

"The Mölln Letters" tells not only of a bureaucratic odyssey, but also of a family story. Through the many conversations, the film dissects German society and its relationship to migrants. The film is characterized by sympathy and understanding for the victims, but is neither a pamphlet nor a loud indictment; rather, it is a work that uses the personal to draw conclusions about the superordinate. (Kira Taszman, www.filmdienst.de)