“With puppeteers Zoi Vlassi and Evi Kambouraki, and the puppet creator Natassa Tapaki, Barbara and Leonie Englert add a new dimension to the sober footage of Crete and the narratives of the interviewed women aged 80-100 years (…) captured in their film. Large-eyed rod marionettes lie shattered under rubble as rape victims with twisted limbs in the Cretan hills (…). Historical photographs would hardly convey the same emotional intensity the puppets do, without being kitschy.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 January 2018
“Directors Barbara and Leonie Englert make visible the close parallels between past atrocities and the present in an impressive documentary installation about the history of Crete (…). The views of Athens, the port city of Chania and the sea awaken recent holiday memories. The sun bleached abandoned village streets and large olive groves retain an idyllic allure. How could it be possible that in places where now German holidaymakers are welcomed in their thousands, seven decades ago 20 000 German paratroopers landed and turned the life of the local villagers into a living hell?”
Frankfurter Rundschau, 18 January 2018
“No sound was to be heard when the nearly 100 years old eyewitnesses of the beginning of the tyranny recall how German parachutists fell like rain from aircrafts, or clearly say Germans had no human blood.”
Frankfurt Journal, 18 January 2018
“Out of a joint Cretan and German effort emerges a quiet narrative, precisely composed, with a sobering image collage sometimes reminiscent of a classical tragedy. A film installation which captures the viewer from the first to the last minute. Having watched it, you grasp the indescribable and will not forget what happened in Crete under German occupation from 1941 to 1945. Nor will you forget the proud, feisty women who resisted the Nazis.”
Sozialismus, Issue 2, 2018, Elisabeth Abendroth