- In an old, rundown house, former German soldier Max struggles with memories of his Jewish lost loved ones from World War II, as the past and present mix, trapping him in a maze of recollections.
- An old house, damp, crumbling stones, dark corridors, ominous music, a hand full of age spots, sounds of war. A train thundering over the rails. The first images of the film "Last Days" by Maartje Seyferth & Victor Nieuwenhuijs allow the viewer to enter the mind of German Max Severin. The present is designed in black and white. The images from his past have color. Past and present merge. Memories and thoughts about the past compete with each other. "I'm barely here anymore." the old man mutters, "What I hear, what I see, what I feel is meaningless." Melancholic music starts to sound and he begins to conduct, his long hair flowing, the sheets of the scores dancing through the air. During the Second World War he was an officer in the German Wehrmacht. Is he guilty of the death of the Jewish Zarah Wolf? As a young German Conservatory student, he rented a room from her. He became her lover but also fell in love with her daughter, Louise. When he went to live with Zarah in the 1930s, Louise was still a little girl, longingly putting on her mother's snakeskin pumps and dancing in front of the mirror, or croaking on a violin. The war breaks out. On August 12, 1941, Louise wrote in her diary: "I have never been so unhappy. Nora and Else no longer come to school." Louise grows up and falls in love with the handsome, sensual man in the house. Zarah catches her child with her lover and leaves the house. "I can't stand this anymore." "Where is the Zarah I loved"? Max asks. "The freethinker, afraid of no one, has turned into a jealous mother." Zarah packs her suitcase, gives her daughter her ring and kisses her fondly goodbye. "Promise me you will go into hiding and find a good place for Bear." Where is she going? She doesn't say anything. Max tries to hide Louise, locking her in the attic of the house. Almost no daylight enters. She can't do much more than lie on her bed and wait. Max wears a uniform. He had to join the army. The dog Bear can betray Louise. He shoots the dog. Images and sounds from the present penetrate old Max's brain. He sees intruders, a tank on the street shoots at him, commandos dragging him away. Alissa, the girl from home care, looks like Louise. Her presence triggers even more memories, but also fears and hallucinations. Alissa finds a photo of Louise and reads her diary. "Sometimes I think I'm like her." says Alissa. She is pregnant and has a miscarriage, lying on the bed in the attic where Louise has been hiding during the war. She's dying. Old Max climbs the stairs to help her. "I love you dearly, Lou."In Max's brain Louise and Alissa merge into one. The house with the dark corridors, the peeling wallpaper, the curtains that move gently in the wind, everything bears the traces of a gruesome past.
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