Director's Statement
| For somebody who was threatened and persecuted by the Nazis Gad’s stance towards life is puzzlingly positive. As if, after he had survived his impossible birth, he determined to enjoy life come what may. And we all know what came. When talking about his youth in Nazi Germany Gad always keeps his agency and his good spirit.
But he also tends to conceal his suffering. The Nazis did everything to turn life into hell for Jews but Gad talks about making love during heavy bombardment. Thus there is a counterfactual ring to some of his stories, a touch of wishful thinking. Sometimes I think it has something to do with his homosexuality, with the ability to sexualize even most obnoxious situations. Sometimes I think it is Gad’s revenge on the Nazis: He won’t let them define the past. He resists being turned into a victim – even half a century later by well-meaning but largely ignorant filmmakers like ourselves. Robin Cackett & Carsten Does |
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