Moorland

Northern Germany, mid-1950s. A barren, windy moorland. The people try forgetting the war. They try forgetting the past. When gay writer and bohemian Emil, who fled to France in 1933, returns to the moor, no one here has been waiting for him.

But Emil needs closure. When he left, he also left his one love Heinrich behind. And now, as he wanders through the village, everything comes back: the memory of their summer of love. The memories of the crazy Lebensreform commune that Heinrich had founded here with some friends. Of Lilly, who was part of their relationship for a short while. And of the political conflicts of the 1920s that caused it all, the commune and their relationship, to fall apart again.

And he remembers the dark secret that must not be spoken about in the village: How one day the SA, with the support of the villagers, attacked the commune and almost beat Heinrich to death.

The village reacts with defensiveness and threats to Emil's digging into the past. The violence comes closer and closer, until finally Emil and the villagers face each other eye to eye.