Berlin-based filmmaker Loraine Blumenthal’s latest documentary is a powerful watch. Set in the small German town of Torgelow, Changing Sides follows a former neo-Nazi who now leads a youth group and football team for local refugees and migrants. After a it won the Audience Award at this year’s Doxumentale, we talked to her about the film’s themes of transformation, redemption and the bridges built between vastly different backgrounds.
Where did the idea for the film stem from, and how did you hear about Eichi and the football team?
I was researching for another project, reading a lot of articles, magazines and newspapers. In Nordkurier, a regional paper covering mainly northeastern Germany, I found the story of Eichi (Thomas Eichstätt), the football coach who would end up being the film’s protagonist. The article spoke of his outreach work, as well as his past. What I found really interesting was that there have been so many documentaries about people leaving the Nazi and neo-Nazi scene, and likewise, there are a lot of documentaries on migrants, refugees and the lives of people coming to new places. But to have both these themes in one documentary and within the framework of football really intrigued me – to see how this game connected refugees and somebody with a past in the right-wing extremist scene.
What was filming in Torgelow like?
The state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where Torgelow is located is quite an interesting area, because it’s a region that quite a few Germans don’t know so much about. It’s very rural, the population is small, and people sort of live in their own bubble. It was easy for me to go there and to be able to read the people, because I lived there in my youth from 1996 to 2003. I know the mentality, and it’s a reserved one.
Why do you think that is?
You know, it’s neither good nor bad – more a ‘life just has to be’ kind of thing, and that sums up so much because there are so many hardships there. It has one of the highest rates of unemployment and alcoholism in the country, and I feel like a lot of people have real personal shit happening, but nobody talks about it. There’s a very stoic mentality. Even if you’ve known a person for decades, they don’t open up. Knowing this made it easier for me to relate when making the film. With Eichi, I was really lucky because he knows how to talk!
You can really sense the tension in the region’s history…
When I used to live there, there was literally no diversity. In my school, I was the only POC. I only remember seeing one other POC, and that wasn’t in my village. After 2015, when a lot of refugees came, it sort of changed. I used to get approached with the typical, “Oh, you’re different because you have a German passport. Nothing against you – it’s just the foreigners.” I was thinking, in my naivety, that the refugees coming to these areas could create some sort of healing with Germans who now have a neighbour from Syria. But in general, the political climate didn’t change. It actually got worse. Of course, there are also good people who are reaching out like Eichi does, and that’s why I think making this film was so important – because I know exactly how it feels to walk around there.
Who are the characters we meet?
Eichi is our main protagonist who lives with his family in Torgelow. We actually realised it was very likely we crossed paths back when I was a teen, back when he was involved in the right-wing extremist scene. I remember they would all hang out at the train station. That was a powerful realisation for us.
Eichi was so easy to work with. I would describe him as a big, sensitive teddy bear. He loves to be with people and he’s super open towards them. This is how I experienced his whole family to be. I think a main driver for this kind of openness is his wife, and she was the main driver in him getting away from the extreme right-wing scene, too.
I was also very attached to Assad, a teenage refugee living with his family in Torgelow. I see so many parallels between Eichi and Assad. Being lost in his late teens was where Eichi once was – not really knowing where to go, doing stupid stuff, not really having found himself. Assad also wants to go to Neubrandenburg, where Eichi came from, so there are many layers of overlap between them.
Thomas is a refugee from Africa, and I could really relate to him. Just him being in that region of Germany – I understood how he felt. I think even with Assad, you can still read the whiteness into his experience with Torgelow. He’s not as endangered, and so my exchange with Thomas was the most fruitful.
That’s why I think making this film was so important – because I know exactly how it feels to walk around there.
What was it like filming?
In the very beginning, Thomas was training with FC Hansa Rostock, which is kind of a big deal. Eichi really wanted Thomas to come to one of their games, since he wants him to have opportunities. Thomas didn’t show up and Eichi was really grumpy, but I knew what was going on for Thomas. His neighbour was being deported and he was doing everything he could to help prevent that. His neighbour was in a situation similar to his own – a father with a similar migrant status with young kids and a wife, living in an identical apartment. Thomas could literally see his potential future. His neighbour left in the middle of the night with his family, leaving everything behind. He showed me the apartment. You could see that somebody had lived there just hours ago. It’s so scary, and that’s his reality, so going to a football meeting with FC Hansa Rostock was not on his priority list. That’s why training is so necessary – so that different perspectives can gain a deeper understanding of one another. For me, the film became about observing this attempt of coming together through the football and youth clubs.
Other than showing the stories of these characters’ lives, what do you hope the film achieves?
I’m hoping to get some funding for the football team and youth club, but what I really want is for power structures to be different. In terms of where we want to go with the film, it was part of the first Impact Labs in Germany through the Good Media Network. Their work is about the sustainability of a documentary outside of and after its screenings. What we want to do for Eichi is to see if we can get decision makers, local politicians and the mayor together around one table to watch the film, and then properly discuss how they’re going to create a job for him. There will also be workshops at schools and youth groups. The other thing that’s important to me is to screen the film to strengthen youth workers and football trainers. There are so many football clubs in rural areas, and they really need to strengthen social skills, as well as to get training on racism and racial sensitivity.
Follow Loraine’s work at loraineblumenthal.com
