Stefanie, a graphic designer, is having a crisis. She has spent too much time looking at monitors, has long since forgotten her ideals, and has only ever done what others want. During a visit to an exhibition, she feels magically drawn to the works of John Heartfield, the inventor of photomontage. And is suddenly, poof, sucked into a picture. After a brief stagger, she finds herself in Heartfield’s studio basement. When, for the first time in a long while, she picks up scissors and paper to make a fellow sufferer, he becomes alive and suddenly John Heartfield is standing in front of her – as an animated figure. A special kind of time travel begins, a roller coaster ride of emotions. The legendary photo satirist of the 1920s, who gave himself an English name in protest against German warmongering, tells Stefanie about his eventful life. His collages against the Nazi regime made him world famous. But he also lived dangerously. On the list of the most wanted persons of the Hitler regime he was on the fifth place.

Director: Katrin Rothe
Writer: Katrin Rothe
Image design: Thomas Eirich-Schneider
Editors: Hannes Starz, Katrin Rothe
Assistant director: Katharina Biro
Design, artwork & storyboard: Lydia Günther, Tonina Matamalas, Caroline Hamann
Supporting character design: Konrad Weiße, Benjamin Swiczinsky
Puppet construction & costume: Anne-Sophie Réamy, Werner Kernebeck
Animators: Lisa Neubauer, Lydia Günther, Jonathan Schwenk, Malte Stein, Mandy Müller (D); Amélie Cochet, Kerstin Zemp, Igor Kuzmic (CH); Wolf Matzl, Birgit Scholin, Rosanne Janssens (A)
Producers: Gunter Hanfgarn, Andrea Ufer (D); Ralph Wieser (A); Sereina Gabathuler, Werner Schweizer (CH)
Production management: Bettina Morlock (D), Susanne Berger (A), Sereina Gabathuler (CH)
Production: Hanfgarn & Ufer (D), Mischief Films (A), Dschoint Ventschr (CH)

Stephanie Stremler and Manuel Harder, Olaf Helbing

Berlin, Vienna