Offer Avnon — My contribution to remembrance work
Press Quotes:
Falk Straub / Kino-Zeit
“Yet another film about the Holocaust? Wasn’t everything there is to say on the subject already said in Claude Lanzmann’s monumental work Shoah (1985)? Anyone who thinks this way should urgently watch Offer Avnon’s documentary. In it, the Israeli director, who lived in Germany for ten years and now lives back in his hometown of Haifa, demonstrates why a critical engagement with the past is more necessary than ever, not by pointing an accusing finger, but by quietly and thoughtfully questioning his surroundings and himself.”
“The Rhine Flows to the Mediterranean Sea attempts the Sisyphean task of finding a position between philo- and anti-Semites, the well-intentioned and the indifferent, those who remember and those who suppress. Not a single image or sentence fails to trigger a multitude of associations. The devil is in the details: this film opens our eyes to them.”
“This film is like the Rhine: it starts off slowly and inconspicuously. I had to find my way into it at first and really struggled not to get out of it internally, but with every passing minute it got better – more compelling, more interesting, more profound, broader – and swept me along... ...As I said: a profoundly brilliant film!”
“Through its consistently self-critical imagery, the film explores the possibility of ‘normality’ in the wake of the Holocaust and encourages reflection not only on familiar images, but also on our own mechanisms of repression, antisemitism, and racism.”
Maria Wiesner/Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Like an archaeologist, Avnon proceeds cautiously up to a certain point, yet delves deeply into the critical issues.”
“... What kind of dialogue can the relatives of victims and perpetrators have with one another? What is collective guilt all about? How far should it extend? Every answer raises further questions. ... The Rhine Flows to the Mediterranean Sea is an important testimony to a fading era, yet it cannot bring the search for hidden memories to a close.”
“The Israeli opening film brought one of the most important contemporary debates into the realm of art and onto the screen. ... This, too, is a film that, with its artful, contrapuntal interweaving of image and text, belongs on the big screen. And it naturally unites the cinema and its audience in a shared discourse.”
Kira Taszman/ Filmdienst
“The absurd yet apt film title The Rhine Flows to the Mediterranean Sea highlights geographical and psychological incompatibilities, while still giving those involved space to share their experiences or interpretations of history.”