Die Hälfte der Stadt plot
The documentary tells the story of Jewish photographer and local politician, Chaim Berman. Before the outbreak of World War II, he is determined to ensure a peaceful coexistence of Poles, Jews and Germans in his Polish hometown, but his cosmopolitan stance will soon be undone. Berman's legacy consists of nearly ten thousand portraits on glass negatives that went undetected for decades. They show the Germans, Jews and Poles, in peace and in wartime. These negatives are the starting point of the film, which tries to reconstruct the life of the maker and the society of his time.