back

Die Möllner Briefe

The Moelln Letters
Panorama Dokumente 2025
© inselfilm produktion
In November 1992, a racist arson attack in Mölln shattered the lives of İbrahim Arslan and his family. At just seven years old, İbrahim survived, but he lost his sister, his cousin and his grandmother. In the aftermath of the attacks, the city received hundreds of letters of solidarity which were ignored for nearly three decades. Woven into İbrahim’s poignant journey of discovery and his encounters with three letter writers, these rediscovered letters form a visual and emotional bridge between past and present. The film follows İbrahim and his siblings, painting a complex portrait of the lasting trauma that continues to affect them to this day. While İbrahim has found a way to cope by fighting against racism and advocating for a remembrance culture centred on the victims’ perspectives, his brother Namik is still at the beginning of his journey to come to terms with the traumatic experiences.
The film not only amplifies the perspectives of the victims and survivors but also uncovers the vibrant solidarity that once existed – a solidarity of which the victims and survivors were previously unaware. It offers a new perspective on remembrance – one that takes the voices of survivors and their experiences seriously and provides them with the space and recognition that they deserve.
To view this content, you must enable third-party cookies. >
by Martina Priessner (Director, Screenplay)
with Hava Arslan, İbrahim Arslan, Namık Arslan, Yeliz Burhan Germany 2025 German, Turkish 96' Colour World premiere | Documentary form Rating R 12

With

  • Hava Arslan
  • İbrahim Arslan
  • Namık Arslan
  • Yeliz Burhan

Crew

Director Martina Priessner
Screenplay Martina Priessner
Cinematography Ayşe Alacakaptan, Julia Geiß
Editing Maja Tennstedt
Music Derya Yıldırım
Sound Design Robert F. Kellner
Producers Friedemann Hottenbacher, Gregor Streiber
Executive Producers Friedemann Hottenbacher, Gregor Streiber

Produced by

inselfilm produktion

World Sales

New Docs

Photos

Martina Priessner

© Shai Levy

The director was born in 1969 and studied social and cultural sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her debut documentary Based Wir sitzen im Süden (Down South) premiered at the 2010 DOK Leipzig and was nominated for the Grimme Award. During a five-year stay in Istanbul, she made the found-footage film Everyday I’m Capuling in 2013 which focused on the Gezi Park protests in the city. Her documentary Die Wächterin (The Guardian) premiered at the 2020 DOK Leipzig and won the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize.

Filmography (documentaries)

2010 Wir sitzen im Süden (Based Down South) 2013 Everyday I’m Capuling 2015 650 Wörter (650 Words); short film 2020 Die Wächterin (The Guardian) 2025 Die Möllner Briefe (The Moelln Letters)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025