There are some films that seem to point out to me that I may just have adult-onset ADHD, and Heimat Is A Space In Time is one of them. I am not discounting this film’s epic, awe-inspiring scope, or the genius of its sociopolitical commentary nestled into a family biography. I am simply saying that I don’t know if I personally am capable of watching a three-and-a-half-hour-long documentary narrated in an almost Herzogian German monotone in one sitting. The detriment to watching this film is that I watched it via screener copy where I had the ever-so-handy pause feature. I’m going to shamefully admit to you all that I had to watch this in about three or four separate viewing sessions and I’m going to attribute that to the age of the internet and its contribution to my minute attention span.
“…digs through his family history and pieces together a narrative through diaries, letters…of four generations.”
Ignoring my own personal issues with attention deficit, Heimat Is A Space In Time is a “Colossus” of a film. Director Thomas Heise digs through his family history and pieces together a narrative through diaries, letters, and other correspondence of four generations. From World War I to the present day. It’s a great historical document for Germany as a country, and I think very educational for those of us who don’t know the point of view of these events from the other side of the Atlantic. It’s certainly eye-opening to hear about the rise of Communism from the point of view of an Eastern German.
"…people falling in and out of love, babies being born, first days of school, first jobs, sickness, and death."
