A poetic memoir and political report, shot in Berlin and Leipzig, and in landscapes around the British Isles. The film’s narrative builds out from the events of the Reichstag Fire in Berlin in 1933 in which the pioneering German-Jewish sound recordist, Ludwig Koch, on whom the film ultimately centres, plays a minor role, placing him and his family in danger. The film is structured in two parts, juxtaposing Koch’s persecution in Nazi Germany with his experiences as a refugee recording bird song and other sounds in Britain.
The film’s images of contemporary urban and rural terrains, and of objects and documents, create a collision between past and present. Shifts in time are further emphasised through the use of Koch’s original sound recordings from Germany and Britain which feature throughout the film.
A woman at the end of her life wanders lost in the woods where her memories find her. Seamlessly blending historical archive footage with dramatizations, the narrative explores how nature connects us to our past.
