Hannas schlafende Hunde (2016): Andreas Gruber's and Elisabeth Escher's Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past in Austria

Based on the novel by Elisabeth Escher, the film Hannas schlafende Hunde by Andreas Gruber tells a story about the persistence of antisemitism in postwar Austria. It is a work about coming to terms with a trauma, but on the other hand it also touches upon the question of coming to terms with the Nazi past, a process that was significantly deferred by the foundation myth of being the first victim of the Nazi Germany aggression. In the film one can see that the groups of former victims, persecutors, and bystanders constituted another factor to impede any process of reflection on the past. The film is a strong voice against the Austrian conservatism that enabled the antisemitic prejudices to linger in the society.