Rarely can a documentary be this intimate while speaking about the whole world – in- and outside – at the same time. Much lauded since its premiere at Berlinale 2020, director Janna Ji Wonders tells the story of the women in her family over the last century.

An additional protagonist is mindblowingly beautiful Lake Walchensee in Bavaria, where the family opened a café in 1920 which still exists today. And then there is the cinematic sensibility that seemed to run through the generations inside the family: Janna Ji Wonders makes exceptional great use of artistic video and photo material that was created long before her birth – connecting four generations, the political and the private, and what it means to have or find a home.

Christoph Gröner