original title:
Il nome del padre
directed by:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
production:
country:
Italy / Germany
year:
2018
film run:
60'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (09/03/2018)
festivals & awards:
A documentary that tells the story of Udo Surer, a German lawyer from Lindau (Bavaria), son of Josef Maier, one of the German soldiers who took part in the massacre of San Terenzo Monti and Vinca in italy. In the summer of 1944 the 16th Panzergranadieren SS Battalion exterminated more than 400 civilians in Lunigiana, including women and children. In 1992 Josef Maier dies and Udo and his family (mother, sister and brother), meet "the other family", the 5 children that his father had from his first wife. In 2002 he start questioning about his father's participation in the Reich and in 2004 he discover that he was enlisted in the SS, in the 16th platoon of the Reichsführer Division, known as "the death battalion", commanded by the infamous Walter Reder. Joseph Maier never mentioned his past, but the papers that Udo finds confirm his responsibilities. Then he decides to change surname and to come to "memorial pilgrimage" in Italy"