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The House on Wannsee Street

The House on Wannsee Street
Memoirs of a German Jewish Family


Generations of family secrets are uncovered in this sweeping international story that begins with the Second World War and concludes with an emotional twenty-first century revelation. When award-winning Argentinean filmmaker Poli Martínez Kaplun decided to dig deep into her family history, she found a shocking discovery. Searching through family albums and 8mm home movies, she unraveled a twentieth-century mystery. What she found were long-forgotten images of her great grandfather, who she learned was a German-Jewish philosopher persecuted by the Nazis. To save his family from the concentration camps, he was forced to flee Berlin and moved to Egypt, then Switzerland, and finally Argentina, where they had to hide their Jewish identity in order to receive Church papers to enter the country (since after the Second World War Jews were not permitted entry as immigrants). Poignant questions of identity, resilience, compassion, and the plight of displaced persons are brought to life as Poli confronts her mother and aunts about the hidden Jewish identity they have concealed ever since. Eighty years later, Poli returns to Germany to their family house on Wannsee Street, a few feet from where the Final Solution was decreed for all Jews in Europe.

  • Poli Martinez Kaplun
    Director
  • Poli Martinez Kaplun
    Writer
  • Esteban Student
    Writer
  • Mariana Martinez
    Producer
    Director, Producer
  • Carlos Winograd
    Producer
    Producer
  • Lucas Werthein
    Producer
    Producer
  • Ernesto Felder
    Key Cast
    Editor
  • Hernan Menendez
    Key Cast
    DF
  • Cesar Lerner
    Key Cast
    Music
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    La casa de Wannsee
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 10 minutes 7 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 8, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    140,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Argentina
  • Country of Filming:
    Argentina, Germany, Spain
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Miami Jewish Film Festival
    Miami
    United States
    January 20, 2020
    World premiere
    AUDIENCE Award Best documentary
  • "Best Documentary" Audience Award
    Miami
    United States
    January 20, 2020
    World Premiere
    Audience Award
  • Dok Film Fest Munchen
    Munchen
    Germany
    May 6, 2020
    Germany Premiere
    Official Selection
  • San Diego Latino Film Festival
    San diego
    United States
    California Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Edmonton Jewish Film Festival
    Edmonton
    Canada
    May 3, 2020
    Canada
    Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • Poli Martinez Kaplun / Oded Horowitz
    Sales Agent
    Country: Argentina
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Poli Martinez Kaplun

Poli currently owns "Productora de Ideas," a production company specialized in documentaries and cultural, commercial and institutional films, based in Argentina. Over the last fifteen years, she has worked as director and production manager of different types of film projects, working on hundreds of documentaries and commercials for major Argentine and International companies and cultural institutions. She also produced and directed documentaries for several television channels
She is LEA and MIRA documentary film director and " The House on Wannsee Street"; Audience Award for Best Documentary in Miami Jewish Film Festival ; Official Selection Dok Fest Munchen 2020

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Director Statement

From Wannsee to Argentina and back, i go in search of my Jewish family’s roots. I recount over one and a half centuries of Jewish history and stumbles across family and other secrets.