Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision

In the mid 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Europeans emigrated to faraway South America. It was a desperate bid to escape the famine, poverty and despotism that ruled at home. Their motto was: “Any fate is better than death”. Edgar Reitz’ new film DIE ANDERE HEIMAT is a domestic drama and love story set against the backdrop of this forgotten tragedy. It centres around two brothers who realise that only their dreams can save them. The younger of them, Jakob, reads every book he can lay his hands on. He dreams about leaving his village, Schabbach, for adventures on an unknown continent and the freedom of the wild South American jungle. He studies the languages of the native South Americans and records his heroic attempts to escape the rural confines of the Hunsrück in an astonishing diary that not only tells us his story but reflects the aspirations and philosophies of a whole era. Everyone who encounters Jakob is drawn into the maelstrom of his dreams: his parents, bowed by the unremitting toil involved in making a living from the soil; his belligerent brother Gustav; and above all Henriette (Jettchen), the comely daughter of a gem cutter fallen on hard times. Gustav’s return from military service is destined to shatter Jakob’s world and his love for Henriette.