Diese Tage in Terezín

Sibylle Schönemann’s best-known film, Locked Up Time (Forum 1991), which screened in 1991 in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and These Days in Terezín (Forum 1997) about the ghetto cabaret artist Karel Švenk, known as the “Chaplin of Theresienstadt”, separate seven years. Although Schönemann made several films during this period, her thoughts and research since the trip to Israel focused predominantly on one subject: the Shoah. The subsequent stations for the gifted entertainer Švenk were Auschwitz and Meuselwitz. He died on a death march to Mauthausen. Fifty years later, Schönemann walks through the streets of Terezín with the author Lena Makarova and the Israeli singer Victoria Hanna Gabbay. What is fascinating about their search for traces is that each new encounter with people who knew the cabaret artist develops an ever-growing network, in which a dialogue between cultures (Czech, Hebrew, German, English – everyone here is a polyglot) and generations is cultivated. And thus, there is also memory: of laughter in – and as – resistance, and of songs, not least of the “Terezín March.” A clever and radically open movie. A powerful gesture of rebellion. (Barbara Wurm)

Sibylle Schönemann, born in Berlin in 1953. After studying directing at the Potsdam-Babelsberg Academy of Film and Television, she worked as an assistant director and dramaturge at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films. In 1984 she applied to leave the country. As a result, she was arrested by the Ministry for State Security and later ransomed. Her film Locked Up Time (1990) was awarded many prizes. Between 1987 and 1992, she worked as a dramaturge and script lecturer for the Hamburg Filmbüro. Since 1991, she was a freelance author and filmmaker. She has been living and working in Potsdam again from 2006 on.

Production Heino Deckert, Hannes Schönemann. Production companies Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktions GmbH (Leipzig, Germany), Der Ochsenkopf Film- und Fernsehproduktion (Schwerin, Germany). Director Sibylle Schönemann. Screenplay Sibylle Schönemann, Lena Makarova. Cinematography Hans Rombach. Editing Renate Merck. Sound Uve Haußig. Location manager Aleš Komárek, Micháel Prikrýl. Executive producer Heino Deckert. Co-production Czech TV. With Victoria Hanna Gabbay, Manka Alter, Orni, Hanna Fialová-Malka, Irene Ravelová, František Domazlicky, Jitka Domazlicky, Josef Švehla, Jenny Švehla, Věra Lišková, Marta Fantlová, Jarmila Potůčková, Luděk Eliáš.

Films: 1976: Kinder kriegen? (short film), Skizze über einen Clown (short film). 1979: Manuela (short film). 1980: Ramona. 1990: Verriegelte Zeit / Locked Up Time (documentary). 1992: Zwischen Himmelpfort und Fegefeuer (documentary). 1993: Risse im Land (documentary). 1995: Wenn Kinder zur Flasche greifen (documentary). 1997: Diese Tage in Terezín / Those Days in Terezín. 2002: Diagnose: Neurodermitis. Leben mit der Krankheit (documentary).