All the while director Mala Reinhardt relies on simple aesthetic design elements, allowing the protagonists to speak both directly and forthrightly about their experiences. The film affords them a hitherto unavailable space, in the process achieving a shift of perspective; after all, it is usually the perpetrators that are the focus of media coverage. The film brings together the seemingly individual fates of the victims of the attacks and the experiences of family members, thus painting a comprehensive picture of the structural racism that affects the survivors in a second wave of violence: invasive journalism, authorities primarily suspicious of family members, as well as ignorance and inaction on the part of the political system. It soon becomes clear that such attitudes are also responsible for the consistency with which right-wing extremist attacks have been carried out in Germany since the 1980s - from racially motivated murders in Hamburg to the attacks in Mölln and Rostock-Lichtenhagen and the crimes of the so-called NSU, responsible for the murders of nine people between 2000 and 2006. “No tenth victim” is what the relatives demand from the authorities and politicians at demonstrations and memorial ceremonies whilst “NSU-Komplex auflösen” (Dissolve the NSU complex), an action alliance launched in 2017, calls for a complete resolution of the case. These paths of resistance also feature in this documentary.
Text: Merlin Webers
English: Peter Rickerby
