Meanwhile in Namibia – Films

Jonas Spriestersbach
Deutschland, Namibia | 2026 | 120 min
Weltpremiere
Sprachen : Afrikaans, Englisch, Deutsch, Verschiedene Sprachen
Untertitel : Englisch, Französisch

Die deutsche Regierung weigert sich, Reparationen für die Besetzung Namibias im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert und für den Völkermord an der indigenen Bevölkerung zu zahlen. Stattdessen bietet sie Entwicklungshilfeprogramme an, die von deprimierendem Neokolonialismus und erschreckendem Rassismus geprägt sind und – für alle ausser den deutschen Beamten und nostalgischen Touristen sichtbar – als Solidarität getarnt werden.

The German government refuses to pay reparations for its occupation of Namibia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the genocide of the indigenous population. Instead, it offers development cooperation programmes that exude a disheartening and appalling neo-colonialism, disguised as solidarity, obvious to everyone except German officials and nostalgic tourists. Spriestersbach shifts from depicting the outlandish colonial settlement of Lüderitz, where cruise passengers enjoy eerie guided tours, as well as groups of joyful vacationers roaming the land where thousands of exterminated Herero and Nama lie unburied, to documenting the German-government-supported “Living Museums” project, which replicates contentious patterns spanning from early-20th-century Western “human zoos” to Riefenstahl's photographic work in Africa. In a tragically ironic paradox, the obtuse cooperators, tasked with reviving the culture their own ancestors erased, blame the locals for not having kept it alive. But the one living thing here that didn't need to be brought back because it never left is blatant racism.

Sergio Fant

Meanwhile in Namibia, 2026
Animals, 2019
Time to Die, Motherfuckers, 2016