Wunderkinder

Poltava, 1941. In this Ukrainian city three children are growing up around music: Larissa at the piano, Abrascha on the violin, Hanna alongside them. Larissa and Abrascha are Jewish; Hanna is the daughter of a German family. The three play together and make plans for the future. When Germany attacks the Soviet Union, those plans collapse overnight. Marcus O. Rosenmüller's German film draws on real events gathered by the producer Artur Brauner. The genocide carried out against Jews under Nazi occupation is a documented historical fact; the film chooses to tell it from the children's point of view, without putting the horror on screen. The children in the leads were cast from among musicians. The production rebuilt Poltava in northern Germany from photographs of the period.