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<\/a><\/p>\nChristoph Boekel’s father was an officer in the Strafdivision 999 from 1942 to 1945. He saw his wartime experience as an opportunity to practice writing. At the same time, writing was a means of emotional relief for him. He had completed his studies in journalism and philosophy shortly before the war began and was striving for his own expressive style. His diaries are haunting and shocking interior views of the war, documents of immediacy that reveal his thoughts, actions and feelings as a soldier – a constant oscillation between euphoria, depression and jadedness.<\/p>\n
His father’s diaries and the letters Christoph Boekel’s parents wrote to each other take the filmmaker to the places in Belgium, France, Tunisia, Germany, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina where his father was stationed between 1942 and 1945. Present-day images of the locations merge with the father’s texts to create a haunting interior view of the war and its soul-destroying power.<\/p>\n
Inserted into this chronology of wartime experiences are conversations between the author and his two brothers, in which they share for the first time the profound impact that this war had on the family and on themselves. Wars do not simply end. They leave traces in the souls of peoples that last for generations.<\/p>\n
Christoph Boekel has made more than 15 films since the 1980s, for which he has received numerous awards. His main subjects have been Russia and contemporary history. In 1989, he made a film for ZDF called “Die Spur des Vaters” (The Trace of the Father), in which he processed recordings made by his father during the war against the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
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