And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Director Bernhard Hetzenauer
Countries Austria, Ecuador, Germany
Duration 78 min
Synopsis
Vera Kohn, a Jewish woman of German descent born in Prague in 1912, fled from Czechoslovakia to Latin America in 1939, where she built a new life for herself as a theater actress in Quito, Ecuador. The trauma of losing home stayed with her forever. A severe mental breakdown changed her life. The documentary essay tells the story of various encounters between the filmmaker, whose Austrian grandfather was an SS soldier, and the remarkable 98-year-old psychologist and Zen teacher.
Vera Kohn, a Jewish woman of German descent born in Prague in 1912, fled from Czechoslovakia to Latin America in 1939, where she built a new life for herself as a theater actress in Quito, Ecuador. The trauma of losing home stayed with her forever. A severe mental breakdown changed her life. The documentary essay tells the story of various encounters between the filmmaker, whose Austrian grandfather was an SS soldier, and the remarkable 98-year-old psychologist and Zen teacher.