A stirring, wise film about the necessary search for new, appropriate forms of remembrance, but also about the traumatic aftermath of the Holocaust into the third generation.
Knut Elstermann, radioeins

A young Jew and his crazy idea against forgetting

Yaar sees himself as the most un-Jewish Jew in the world. He loves Star Wars and computer games. He's fed up with his father and his Holocaust stories. Yaar rebels by developing a computer game in which Jews can defend themselves and Nazis can act humanely. Then his own family history interferes.

TACHELES – The Heart of the Matter shows how the trauma of the survivors can even affect the third generation. The film asks the burning question from the perspective of a 21-old:

What does the Holocaust have to do with me today?

„TACHELES – The Heart of the Matter” is a co-production of HANFGARN & UFER Filmproduction and SCHRAMM MATTHES FILM in cooperation with ZDF/3sat and WDR, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Jewish Conference Claims against Germany

Distribution: Real Fiction Cologne
World Sales: Ruth Films Jerusalem

Nomination Grimme Prize 2023 2023
Preselection German Film Award 2022 2022
Nomination PRIX EUROPA 2022 2022
Nomination German Documentary Film Award 2021 2021

FESTIVALS

DOK.fest München
New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Washington Jewish Film Festival
Kasseler Dokfest
Achtung Berlin – the new Berlin film award
London Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival in partnership with Hot Docs
Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival
Let´s Dok
SWR Doku-Festival
Jewish Film Festival Hamburg
Jewish Film Days Frankfurt am Main
Jewish Culture Days Braunschweig
Jewish Culture Days between Harz and Heide
Klezmer Festival Fürth

„TACHELES – The Heart of he Matter“ in the educational work:

Learning by Docs Europe - "Nexus", an educational initiative of DOK.fest Munich, Docs Barcelona & Thessaloniki Film Festival
SchoolCinemaWeeks via Vision Kino - Network for Film and Media Competence

FILM TALKS

DOKfest Munich: Jana Matthes, Andrea Schramm, Yaar Harell in conversation with Ysabel Fantou (conversation in german)

London Human Rights Watch Filmfestival: Jana Matthes, Yaar Harell in Conversation with Kate Marrison organized by the Goethe Institute (conversation in English)

TEAM

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Jana Matthes & Andrea Schramm

Directors, script and production
Jana Matthes and Andrea Schramm work as directors and producers for arte, 3sat, ARD and ZDF. After having studied journalism in Leipzig and directing in Potsdam-Babelsberg they founded SCHRAMM MATTHES FILM. They portray complex political and social developments in radically personal stories. Many of their films have been screened on international festivals and won prizes, such as the ‘DEUTSCHER FERNSEHPREIS’ (‘German Television Award’) and the Discovery Channel Award.

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Gunter Hanfgarn

Producer
Gunter Hanfgarn has been producing documentary and feature films since 1991, including numerous international and award-winning co-productions and debuts. As producer of Susanna Salonen’s feature film PATONG GIRL he received the Grimme Prize in the category fiction and was nominated for the German Film Prize with NO LAND’S SONG by Ayat Najafi. His co-productions CARNE DE PERRO and PELO MALO received top prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival. His production WIE HOLOCAUST INS FERNSEHEN KAM has been awarded the Grimme Prize for 2020. Gunter Hanfgarn is a member of the German and European Film Academy.

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Lars Barthel

Camera
Lars Barthel was born in Erfurt in 1953. After studying at the camera department of the HFF Potsdam, where he graduated in 1977, he stayed for three more years as a master student at the university. In 1982 he emigrated to India, only to return to Berlin a year later. Lars has made many award-winning documentaries as a cameraman and sometimes as a director. Some of his last movies are "Free Lunch Society" and "Get me some hair".

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Julia Wiedwald

Editor
After completing her degree in media design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Julia Wiedwald has been a freelance film editor since 2004. She assembles both feature films and, primarily, long documentaries, many of them award-winning. (Including the documentary "No Land’s Song" by Ayat Najafi, which was nominated for the German Film Prize in 2017, and the long-term documentary "Zwischen den Stühlen" by Jakob Schmidt.) Her focus is always on the dramaturgy of a film. Julia Wiedwald is a member of the German Film Academy and the Federal Association of Film Editing (BFS).

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Andrej Johannes Thieme

Camera
Andrej Johannes Thieme has been working as a freelance cameraman since 2014. At the beginning he worked for several years as first camera assistant on the set for a large number of film and television productions and in advertising. In 2009 he began his studies at the University of Film and Television "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam Babelsberg, which he finished with a feature film. In addition to working on personal film projects, he prefers to work in the fields of documentary, feature film and advertising.

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Tamara Trampe

Dramaturgical counseling
Born in 1942 in Voronezh, Russia. Study of German philology at the University of Rostock. From 1967-69 culture editor at the “Forum”. 1970-1990 dramaturge at DEFA Studios for feature films in Babelsberg. Freelance filmmaker, author and dramaturge since 1990. Taught at various film schools. Dramaturgical advisory for about 80 film projects. Member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts. As a writer/director, Tamara co-directed a number of films with Johann Feindt, such as B. "The Black Box" (1990/91), "White Raven" (2005) and "My Mother, a War and Me (2014)

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Timo Selengia

Sound engineer
Timo Selengia has been working as a sound engineer for numerous documentaries and feature film productions since 1999. Successful festival productions such as SONG FROM THE FOREST by Michael Obert (IDFA 2013), LOUISA by Katharina Pethke (Dok Leipzig 2011), or TORE TANZT by Katrin Gebbe (Cannes 2013) are among his portfolio. He is interested in politics and society, he also takes part in non-profit film projects.

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Nic Nagel

Sound engineer
Nic Nagel worked for many years as a news editor for German TV channels such as ARD. As a sound engineer, Nic works for documentaries, feature films or advertising. Nic has lived in Berlin for many years, where she moved after completing her studies at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy.

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Sarah Heitz

Sketches
Sarah Heitz studied communication design. After her studies in Trier and Krakow, she completed a traineeship in Switzerland and is currently a designer at Superdot, Basel. As an illustrator, she uses drawings to make feelings and numbers visible.

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Jörg Langer

Consultation, accounting
Jörg Langer holds a degree in economics and gives counsel to producers and filmmakers as well as associations and organizations that are active in the film and TV business. With his company LANGER MEDIA research & consulting, he also creates specific investigations, studies, and analyses on the film and television industry.

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Jonas Greulich

Sketches
Jonas Greulich is a comic book artist and notorious multi-professionalist. His freelance activities range from drawings, illustrations, comics and animations to scriptwriting and directing of “real life” films. Since completing his studies, he has lived and worked in Berlin. He is a founding member of the artist group MOGA MOBO.

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Paul Rieth

Consulting Crowdfunding
Paul Rieth spezialisierte sich bereits während seines Studiums auf den Bereich Film und neue Medien. Er organisierte Filmfestivals, arbeitete als Filmjournalist, gründete eine Filmproduktionsfirma und produzierte mehrere Kurzfilme. Mit seiner Veröffentlichung von "DOK & CROWD" veröffentlichte er 2015 das ersten Handbuch über den deutschen Dokumentarfilmmarkt mit Blick auf Crowdfunding, VOD und Social Media Marketing. Seine Agentur GET YOUR CROWD berät und betreut Kampagnen in den Bereichen Audience Building, Filmmarketing und Crowdfunding. Außerdem produziert sie vielfältigen Video-Content.

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Julia Jasjunas

Assistant director
Julia Jasjunas studied Media Management (B.A.) and Eastern European Cultural Studies (M.A.) in Wiesbaden, Potsdam and Moscow. After her bachelor's degree, she completed a traineeship in Berlin in the field of documentary production. As an author and social media manager, she has worked on various projects for ARTE, rbb and DW. Julia is currently working at the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism.

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