Back to Berlin
classified 12A PSPlease note: This was screened in Dec 2018
Eleven Jewish bikers travel from Israel to Berlin for the Maccabiah Games in this beautifully evocative and poignant documentary that reflects on anti-semitism in Europe.
In 1930, a group of Jewish bikers traveled to all corners of Europe to find participants for the first Jewish Olympics – known as the Maccabiah Games. In 2015, to commemorate this heroic journey, 11 Jewish bikers set off from Israel once again to re-trace their ancestors' footsteps and carry the Maccabiah torch to the site of the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics for the first games held on German soil. Travelling 4500km across 7 countries in just 24 days, together they explore their dark genocidal past and discover how they or they families survived the Holocaust.
With populist movements from both the left and right rising again, Back to Berlin provides an essential connection between the past and present – but it’s not only a cautionary tale. It’s a story of defiance, survival, and people overcoming the worst from others to restate our common humanity.