Milch und Kohle

In the organizer's words:

Simon Wess returns to the Ruhr region. He traces the memories of his family and the past - a time between hope, post-war pain, speechlessness and emotional hardship.

In the Ruhr area, at the end of the 1960s. A region on the move, prosperous and full of hope. Liesel and Walter Wess have moved from the Melkhof in the north to the Ruhr. Walter works underground, a life in coal dust. The past war period has seeped deep into Liesel, she knows the hardships of life and inexorably passes them on to her sons Simon and Traska. Only when Liesel sews herself a new dress for twist dancing does she escape the confines of her life. Simon roams the sooty streets with his buddy Pavel on souped-up mopeds and, like Traska, struggles against the family confinement. When guest workers are recruited to the Ruhr area and received with much resentment, Walter nevertheless invites his colleague Gino to cook - and with him, not only do new flavors enter Liesel's small kitchen, but also an idea of what her worn-out life could have been like.

A cramped life, with too little money, lots of work, always surrounded by neighbors and everyday violence - but also a desire for freedom or the wish to forget. In his memories, Simon once again encounters the world in which he once grew up - the cage of his childhood - and confronts speechlessness.

Ralf Rothmann takes a laconic and artistic look at life in the Ruhr region and creates a literary monument without any pathos. He tells the individual story of a family that stands for an entire milieu and its time. Director Maike Bouschen lets Simon travel through his memories in her production, interweaving past and present.