The Return

In The Return, South African writer Heidi Grunebaum returns to the city of Hungen in Germany, from where her grandmother was forced to flee eight decades earlier to escape the holocaust. But the ‘return’ of the film title also refers to the return of a violent racism to Germany — and beyond — except that it is now most predominantly directed at people of colour who are perceived as ‘foreigners’. Connecting the dots between nazism, the institutional racism and violence of apartheid, and the contemporary rise of the extreme right, the film argues that these forces of division and hatred have been lurking in the shadows since the end of the second world war, both in Germany and around the world. But while The Return is devastatingly candid about the current status of global politics, its deeply compassionate perspective also shows a way forward, one based on kindness, love, and a simple recognition of the fact that we are all in this together.