'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

the viewer that this story will happen in Germany during the Third Reich and deal with a
mother figure?
H.S.-B.: Yeah, right. Exactly.
R.R.: So, some critics have said that by using the Brecht poem at the beginning of the
film, you are equating or saying your mother‟s history represents the history of all
German women during the war period and Economic Miracle. How do you answer these
critics?
H.S.-B.: It‟s not all…I just confronted the poem of Brecht with my personal experience
with my own mother. But, of course, this personal experience, as you said, is set in this
setting that the Brecht poem gives, so it is an exchange between the Brecht poem and my
own experience. It was my own experience, which is told in the context of a fictional
film, it is not a documentary; it tells a story. But of course, one idea of Brecht that is very
important for the film is that Brecht wanted to create reflection in the spectator, and the
voice-over is also a means to stimulate reflection. And, if you remember, to underline
this, the first image of the film is a reflection, it is the reflection of a swastika in the dark
water. So in a way, this is a means of a film image showing that this [film] is a
reflection, in the double sense of the word.
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