SCHICHT (SHIFT) is both a reckoning and a search for traces of the past. Layer by layer the film unfolds the portrait of the filmmaker's family - brought to life by records from private archives - and embarks on a dizzying trip through the shrinking industrial city of Salzgitter, Germany.
SCHICHT (SHIFT) unfolds the portrait of the filmmaker's family - brought to life by records from private archives - and embarks on a dizzying trip through the shrinking industrial city of Salzgitter, Germany. A city that is a cyborg with an iron skeleton and a heart beating 1000 metres deep under layers of soil and concrete.
Mining, steel factory, model city. Upon the years 33 and 45, the first post-war generation projects itself into the future. Rudolf Gerbaulet completes his apprenticeship at the Reichswerke AG (formerly known as Hermann-Göring-Werk), works in the mine and at the Volkswagen plant. His wife Doris suffers from multiple sclerosis. Her diary is an expression of her slow disappearance. They name their first daughter after a singer: Alexandra. As a rebellious punk the daughter finds her own rhythm.
Pulsating, sometimes breathless, the film follows the exposed stories. The filmed locations are attacked with archival material: propaganda, news, photos from family albums. Everything is subjected to the filmmaker's interpretation.
A film between analysis and imagination, composed of the punk of the filmmaker's youth, accompanied by the roar of the steel mill and the noise of the highway. Interrupted by the cutting silence of abandoned mines, in which from 2020 nuclear waste will be dumped. Half-life of 24,000 years. 685 generations.
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