''The House on Wannsee Street'' ( es, La casa de Wannsee) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

documentary film written and directed by Poli Martínez Kaplun. It premiered on August 1, 2019, in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Synopsis

After her son decides to celebrate his Bar mitzvah, filmmaker Poli Martínez Kaplun starts digging into the history of her ancestors, German Jews who were forced to go into exile in order to escape

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. This search takes her on a journey to Europe. On the outskirts of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, she visits the house that used to belong to her great-grandfather, philosopher and psychologist Otto Lipmann. Through photographs, documents and interviews with family members, Martínez Kaplun rebuilds her family's history and reflects on issues such as discrimination, identity and memory.

Critical response

Paula Vázquez Prieto, film critic for the Argentine newspaper

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina. Its motto is: "''La Nac ...

, gave the film a positive review, observing that " ..the journey of The House on Wannsee Street transcends the intimate and adopts the political as its mark ..Martínez Kaplun is able to deconstruct memory beyond the testimonial, and her strategy is to bring about encounters in places where matters seemed to have been settled." In the Argentine newspaper Clarín, film critic Gaspar Zimmerman wrote, "With the help of extraordinary photographs and footage from her own archive, Martínez Kaplun rebuilds her family's pilgrimage, which began in Nazi Germany." Marina Biondi, film critic for La Butaca Web, wrote that "The documentary moves, impacts and invites viewers to want to know more about their own histories, since it shows that nothing is casual and we are all, in part, consequence of inherited experiences and events." The website Jewish Film Review considered the documentary "very highly recommended," stating that "Martínez is a particularly deft storyteller and her story is captivating."

Festivals and awards

The documentary had its international premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, where it was presented as part of the Festival's Spotlight on Ibero-American Cinema and awarded the Audience Award for Best Documentary. It was also screened at the 26th San Diego Latino Film Festival, and at Dok Fest München 2020.

References

External links

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''The House on Wannsee Street''
at

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(in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:House on Wannsee Street 2019 films 2019 documentary films Argentine documentary films 2010s Argentine films