A sanatory in the south of Germany, a room with a view to the Bavarian Alpes. Talking to the camera: Thomas Harlan, author and filmmaker, adventurer, Nazi hunter. He talks, tells stories, reflects, interrupts himself. An imaginated film: a trip through Moscow, a meeting with Hitler, " language as a cathedrale", West-Germany's rehabilitation of war criminals, protest actions, the conflicts with his father Veit Harlan, the director of the notorious antisemitic propaganda film Jud Suess. The 2-disc DVD offers the 96 minute documentary Thomas Harlan - Wandersplitter plus 160 minutes with additional interviews with Thomas Harlan and clips from his films.
The film
Thomas Harlan - Wandersplitter - Germany 2006 - Directed and photographed by: Christoph Hübner - Sound recorded and edited by: Gabriele Voss - With Thomas Harlan - Produced by: Christoph Hübner Filmproduktion, Witten - Première: November 9, 2006, Duisburg Film Week
About the film
Thomas Harlan, filmmaker, author and revolutionary was born in 1929 in Germany. His father was the infamous propaganda filmmaker Veit Harlan, director of Jew Suess. During his childhood, as a result of his father's closeness to the Nazi Party, the little Thomas came face to face with Hitler and Goebbels. Now an old frail man, Harlan lives in a respiratory clinic in Berchtesgaden. It is in this clinic in South Germany that he, along with documentary filmmaker Christoph Hübner, examines fragments of his past.
After the Second World War Harlan moved to Berlin and then to France. He met with Gilles Deleuze and Klaus Kinski, wrote plays, poetry and prose, engaged in left wing discourses and in 1959 in Poland he began archival research into the National Socialist regime. This research led to the prosecution of more than 2,000 German war criminals. The pieces of Harlan's life revealed to us in this fascinating documentary are, he says, like shrapnel: they enter the body violently and can cause long-term pain and aggravation.
"I came across Thomas Harlan for the first time in the course of a retrospective of his films at the Munich Film Museum. For a longer period of time, I had myself been working on the subject of 'children and grand-children of the Nazi Period.' I drove to Munich to meet Thomas Harlan and we decided to work on a film together." (Christoph Hübner)
DVD features (2 discs)
DVD 1
- Thomas Harlan - Wandersplitter 2006, 96'
- Über Wandersplitter 2007, 6'
- Der Film 'Souvenance' 2007, 24'
- Press book with texts, filmographies and interviews as ROM feature
DVD 2
- Biografische Angaben 2007, 1'
- Der Film 'Torre Bela' 2007, 37'
- Reise nach Kulmhof / 'Rosa' 2007, 27'
- Der Film 'Wundkanal' 2007, 34'
- Anmerkungen zum Roman 'Heldenfriedhof' 2007, 19'
- Die Organigramme 2007, 4'
- Am Ararat 2007, 14'
DVD edited by: Filmmuseum München and Goethe-Institut
DVD authoring: Ralph Schermbach
DVD supervision: Stefan Drössler
First edition September 2007, Second edition November 2010
