Plot

Martin Goldsmith never knew what happened to his parents before they escaped from Germany in 1941. Over a weekend, he confronts his father and we are brought back to the complex and confusing 1930s when the parents were young musicians.

"Winter Journey" is based on American radio host Martin Goldsmith's book about his Jewish parents, who fled Nazi Germany. Both were talented musicians, but after the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935 they were only able to perform as members of the Jewish Cultural Federation, a bizarre propaganda organization fully controlled by the Reich Chamber of Culture. This film brings to life the reality of their beautiful and painful love story, using remarkable and ingenuously edited archive material. It also includes reenactments of the conversations Goldsmith had with his father in preparation for his book. The dynamic that emerges in the interaction between Martin Goldsmith himself, as the unseen interviewer, and a vulnerable Bruno Ganz, playing his father Georg Goldsmith, is fascinating. On one occasion Ganz even references his legendary role as Hitler in Downfall (2004), when Goldsmith, Sr., mimics an agitated Nazi official who stamps his visa. In ways like this, the story transcends its modest place in the history of the war.—International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam 2019