GERMANY, PALE MOTHER: A WOMAN IN THE WAR BETWEEN INTIMATE HISTORY AND TRANSMISSION OF THE PAST

Abstract

The film Germany, Pale Mother (1980) by German director Helma Sand­ers-Brahms depicts the journey of a woman who has to survive alone with her child during the Second World War, when her husband is sent to the front. Based on the memories of H. Sanders-Brahms’s mother, the film tells a very personal story, while at the same time raising the question of collective Ger­man guilt. Germany, Pale Mother is neither a faithful historical reconstruction nor the account of an individual destiny in the mode of traditional biography, but resembles a mosaic of disparate materials that “shatter the academic gloss of fiction”. The aim of this article is to explore the way in which H. Sanders-Brahms deconstructs classic narrative schemes in order to get as close as possible to an intimate trajectory that is inseparable from Germany’s disastrous national history. How do you tell the story of a life (her mother’s), which is also in the background her own (as a child) and that of her own country? In particular, this article will explore the link between individual and collective memory, be­tween personal recollections and collective representations of the past, in order to understand the specific nature of this unique film biography. In the context of Russian war against Ukraine, we will be looking in par­ticular at the way in which a film can raise awareness among viewers and en­courage them to take responsibility for the crimes committed in their name. Russians today, like Germans yesterday.