IN HEAVEN UNDERGROUND: THE WEISSENSEE JEWISH CEMETERY
Im Himmel Unter Der Erde
Germany, 2011, documentary
90 minutes
German, Russian and English with English subtitles
Director: Britta Wauer

Mid-Atlantic Premiere

Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival
As hard as it may be to believe, this is an enchanting, uplifting film about a cemetery. Not just any cemetery, but the largest active Jewish burial ground in Europe, 100 acres of splendid wooded land known as the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery. Although located in Berlin, the cemetery has operated for 130 years continuously under Jewish authority, even during the Nazi regime. What stories hide among the stone memorials? Walking through the cemetery is like taking a walk through history with a long list of famous notables buried there. Above all, this is a place where families coming in search of their ancestors’ graves and others mourning the recent deaths of loved ones create a place of personal connection where life and the immortality of memories are celebrated.

Read the New York Times review

POST-FILM DISCUSSIONS WITH Britta Wauer, Producer/Director/Screenwriter

CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Goethe-Institut Washington

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the DCJCC’s Leo & Anna Smilow Center for Jewish Living and Learning  

Your ticket for either screening of In Heaven Underground includes the reception on Sunday, December 4, at 8:30 pm at the DCJCC