In Heaven, Underground:
The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee (2011)
Amid the big, abstract topics of life — and death probably tops that list — it’s touching how the practical and the tangible still have their grip. So it’s reassuring when Britta Wauer’sdocumentary about the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest active institutions of its kind in Europe, begins with Rabbi William Wolff describing one of his primary tasks: It’s important, he says with a chuckle, to get that coffin in the ground as smoothly as possible.
Directed by Britta Wauer
1 hour 30 minutes
Rabbi Wolff presides over many services in this cemetery north of Berlin, lovingly displayed across the seasons. The place is beautiful, a secluded forest with uneven, obscured rows of dignified stone markers, some 130 years old. A more convincing picture of a cemetery’s quixotic calm would be hard to find.
But as the camera swoops in stately fashion up, down and around this oasis, the featured people give this documentary heart: the mourners, of course, but also the coffin makers, the security guards, the groundskeepers, the schoolchildren, the historians, the administrators, the birdwatchers (yes) and the living residents (yes too: a young family with a toddler who have an apartment on the grounds).
“Stately” applies to the film’s pace, as well; there’s history here (shots of prewar Berlin are particularly interesting), but the documentary doesn’t offer much narrative momentum. That’s not what it’s about. “In Heaven, Underground” captures the aura of the Weissenseein its many layers. The sense of place may be expected, but it’s also poetic and exquisite.
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