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Tacheles – The Heart of the Matter and live Q&A with Yaar Harell

Important announcement:

Unfortunately due to coronavirus, our guest speaker, Yaar Harell is no longer able to join us in person this evening for a live Q&A, but has recorded a message for the audience which will play after the screening.

This event is organised by the Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Sussex as part of the Institute's Holocaust Memorial Week programme.

Yaar is a young Jewish Berliner who dreams of becoming a game designer. With his two friends Sarah and Marcel, Yaar decides to create the computer game “Shoah, While God was Asleep” and base the protagonist, a young Jewish girl in 1940s Germany, on his grandmother Rina and her experiences during the War. Her opponent is an SS officer, who is inspired by one of Marcel’s ancestors.

The three friends agree: the assignment of victim and perpetrator roles prevent them from being able to do what they so desperately long for – to move on! The past should finally be left behind them. Together with his friends, he visits Rina’s birthplace, Krakow, and uncovers a terrible family secret.

The game ceases to be a game as the three realise that the past is strongly connected to them – the grandchildren of victims and perpetrators. Thus, the journey becomes a difficult encounter with family history which significantly changes Yaar’s relationship with his father.

Tacheles – The Heart of the Matter explores how the trauma of the survivors can affect the third generation. The film asks the burning question from the perspective of a 21-year-old: What does the Holocaust have to do with me today?

This programme is supported by a grant from The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.