Well worth seeing.
| Der Tagesspiegel, 02/28/1988 |
Very captivating, because it is such a direct and observing documentary film, which lets you think over what is said and done a lot in connection with ‘foreign countries’ and ‘foreigners’. An interesting film, humane and in such a simple way awakening ones concern.
The documentary film “Heimkehr – Von Berlin nach Lima” (Home Coming – From Berlin to Lima) tells the story of the 24 year-old Peruvian Viki Aguilar Cuba from Independencia, a colony of the poor at the outskirts of the capital Lima. After a one and a half year stay in Berlin, where she worked as an au pair girl and where she learned an excellent German, the young Peruvian comes back home. The film shows her last weeks in Berlin, the farewell from her newly won friends, the heartily welcome of her family in Lima, the first four weeks of her settling down, and her painful search for a job.
The smooth pictures are accompanied by the intelligent, vigilant, and sometimes funny comments of the young Peruvian; she comments so to say the perception of the spectator, which causes a special density and credibility. While the camera takes its time to capture the detailed observations of the different worlds of Berlin and Lima, Viki’s reflections contain most individual and revealing comparisons of the cultures.
Recommendation of the jury of the evangelic film works
film of the month, 1987 |
Gerlinde Böhm withdraws herself into the position of a quiet observer for the rest of the film. That is the strength, with which she gives the film its distinctive mark. She describes Viki’s triumphant reception, the contrast between the grandiose world of the passenger terminal and the modesty of her parents’ home.
| die tageszeitung, 4/7/1988 |
Unfortunately the lights of the cinema turn on again when the journey through Berlin and Lima ends. (…) Her observations and critical comments, her small stories of the daily life in Berlin are told by Viki Aguilar so straight forward, that you would love to get on the 19er bus with her, walk with her through Kreuzberg (part of Berlin) and keep her from cleaning and cooking just to continue to listen to her and to see the so familiar neighborhood through her eyes.
| SFB, Zeitpunkte, 4/7/1988 |
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