Arquivo

This documentary’ central theme is the investigation of a murder committed by two neonazis in the German city of Wuppertal, near Cologne, in November 1992. The city that became a refugee camp for Muslims fleeing the war in the former Yugoslavia is also one of the headquarters for neonazis in Germany. The crime took place on a night when the victim, of Jewish descent, had a few drinks with far-right activists in a bar. Gitai places the incident within the context of a community which has received a large number of refugees, and at the same time has seen a rise in racial tensions. The filmmaker shot the film one week after the murder, and collected people’ testimonies in the heat of the moment when details of the crime were not yet clear. He breaks up with the traditional style of documentary-making by interrupting the interview with one pedestrian only to hear the impressions of another passerby, a strategy that is repeated several times throughout the film, thus allowing for a freer discussion on the issue. Gitai also refuses to identify his interviewees through subtitles as a means to avoid categorizing them in any way.