Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany

Edgar Reitz's monumental 11-part series Heimat tells the story of Schabbach, a German village in the Hunruck region, from 1919 to 1982. The story unfolds through the eyes of Maria Simon as she marries, raises her sons, and grows old while Germany changes around her. The Simon family, like the rest of the German people, endure the hard times after WWI, struggle with the rise and fall of Nazism and WWII, and then prosper with the rebuilding of the country after the war. Despite the film's sweeping scope of history, the tone is intimate as Reitz pays attention to the smallest details of daily life--for it is those moment that are the most memorable in retrospect. (official distributor synopsis)