German-Filipino filmmaker Ina Luchsperger constructs a poignant family portrait centered on a teenager growing up in rural Bavaria, considered as the economic powerhouse of Germany. The 13-year-old lives on an old farm with his eccentric grandmother, surrounded by her colony of cats. His father is a regular visitor to the farm, committed to raising his son and sharing his worldview with him.

On their doorstep passes a freeway that connects this region to Eastern Europe and beyond. The film touches on the boy’s coming-of-age and his gradual enthrallment with political rhetoric. As the memories of the past that shaped contemporary Europe fade, his adolescent world is increasingly visited by the spectres of German history. The film is not only concerned with the interlacing of past and present, but also with the connection between personal and political time. It gradually uncovers how history haunts our daily lives, makes itself felt in words and gestures, even in the act of retreating into one’s own universe, one’s own mythology.

German spoken, English subtitles

A day that could also be a life. A young man who could also be an older woman. A nightmare that could also be a dream. In Tunisia, while it could also be somewhere else: on the border between the necessity and the fear to make a film, the necessity and the fear for the revolution, is This day won’t last a cooperation with a distance. That is how this self portrait turns into a group portrait. Clandestine, but straight from the heart: an end that could also lead to a new beginning.

Since 2017, Mouaad el Salem is director, producer, editor, cameraperson, soundperson, activist and lead characters of this debut film. Mouaad lives and dreams in Tunisia and Europe.