German and French premiere of the 90 minute-TV Documentary: Our film starts the ARTE 25 years anniversary program at Saturday, 27 May 2017, 08:15 p.m.
Read more: ARTE 25 years anniversary program and web-archive of WELT.de (german)
Venice. The most magnificent city in the world, visited by millions, photographed by millions, but full of mystery. Tourists often walk by unaware, like the mysterious signs that are followed in the TV documentary, “Venice and the Ghetto”. They tell of the five hundred year history of the Jewish population of Venice, of their suppression and deprivation, but also of their will to live and happiness - and lead to a place that is one of the most lively and popular districts in Venice...
On 29 March 1516, the Republic of Venice made a resolution with far-reaching consequences: They assigned the Jews to an area where they had to live separately from the rest of the population. It was a bleak area on the edge of the city called, “Ghetto”. From there, that expression spread to the whole world as a synonym for exclusion and persecution.
But, it was different in Venice: Today, the ghetto is a place for meeting people and a favourite, colourfully mixed residential district with a high quality of life.
Like no other place, this district reflects the changing relationships between the Jews, Venice and the world in small details that tell big stories, such as:
...five magnificent synagogues behind inconspicuous facades...
...special windows at the height of sea level...
...ancient, densely packed high-rise buildings that are built on sand...
...flats where you can hardly stand upright...
...a marble board that tempts informers...
...a canal for the dead...
The first Jews who came to the ghetto found ruined houses, dirt and refuse.
It was an abandoned commercial area surrounded by water and only accessible through gates that were closed in the night and strictly guarded.
However, more and more flocked here, fleeing from wars and the persecution on the mainland. The gates of the ghetto promised not only exclusion but protection as well. Venice granted this protection, but it also demanded massive compensation for it. Jews not only had to pay high taxes, but also had to lend money to the Venetian population.
More Jews came into the ghetto with every wave of immigration, from other cultural circles, with foreign languages, ways and traditions. There were times of repression, poverty, persecution, but also times of cultural and economic heydays and all in the smallest space. Not until Napoleon, were the gates of the ghetto opened. From then on, the Jews were made equal to other Venetians, at least theoretically. “Stolpersteine” (stumbling blocks), a memorial and a cenotaph in the central square of the ghetto are witnesses of the dark time of the Nazi occupation. Today, the members of the Jewish community live spread out across Venice, but the ghetto and its five synagogues are still the centre of their religious identity.
The TV documentary “Venice and the Ghetto” unlocks the hidden mysteries of the ghetto and traces the stories behind them in enacted scenes and in reality, from the people who shaped the place for centuries up to those who still do today.
TV documentary for ARTE, NDR, BR, ORF, RAI
90 min. / 2 x 43 min. / 52 min. HD
Script: Klaus T. Steindl
Director: Klaus T. Steindl
Speaker´s text: Klaus T. Steindl, Ulrike Gessner
Production: Metafilm, Tellux Film
Reenactment-Pics: (c) Helmut Wimmer_Philipp Sklorz_Metafilm_Tellux Film
