The German People / Das deutsche Volk (2025), dir. Marcin Wierzchowski

Location: The Hyde Park Picture House

Please join us for a screening of the recent award-winning documentary The German People (2025). The film deals with the aftermath of the racist terror attack in the German town of Hanau in 2020 and does so through the perspective of the victims’ friends and families. 

The film marks an important intervention in contemporary public memory debates and should be of interest to anyone interested in questions of public memory, debates about immigration, and structural racism. 

Director Marcin Wierzchowski accompanies the victims’ loved ones as they navigate grief and loss, documenting their struggle for justice, their calls for acknowledgement and their determination not to be treated as second-class citizens. They expose the structural racism expressed not only in the crime itself but also how they are treated by the authorities.

As politicians search for the right words and many questions regarding the crime go unanswered, those left behind set out to find answers themselves. Together, they reconstruct the events of the night of the attack, endeavour to ensure it is not forgotten and demand consequences. As time passes public awareness wanes, yet the families continue their fight: a fight for justice, a fight to remember those who were murdered.

Since the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2025, it has won a few prizes, including the Goethe Institute Documentary Film Prize 2025. 

The screening is organised by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds and the School of Modern Languages at the University of Newcastle, and is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service, the Goethe Institute and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. 

Further details

• The screening is fully subtitled in English and will be followed by a Q&A with the director

• Book tickets.

Watch the trailer (with English subtitles).