The Flat (2011)

The Flat (Hebrew: הדירה) is a 2011 feature documentary film, an Israeli–German co-production written and directed by Arnon Goldfinger. It was theatrically released in Israel in September 2011. It played continuously for thirteen months and has received rave reviews. Time Out Tel Aviv chose to place the film at the top of its recommended films for 49 weeks under the headline: “not to be missed” and chose it as one of the 25 most important art works from around the world for 2011. The Flat was theatrically released in Germany in June 2012. The German version of the film features the voice of renowned German actor Axel Milberg taking on the role of narrator Arnon Goldfinger. The Flat was theatrically released in USA in October 2012.

The film won the 2012 Best Editing in a Documentary Feature Award in the Tribeca Film Festival World Documentary Competition. It was the opening film at Dok Munich in 2012. The flat was one of the final three nominees for the German Academy Film Awards 2013 (“Lola”). and nominated for the German TV Grimme Awards 2014.

Synopsis

The film opens as the director and members of his family are gathered in the apartment of his mother's mother, Gerda Tuchler, a short while after her death, to clear out the contents. His grandmother lived in the same apartment for 70 years, ever since she and her husband, Kurt, left Nazi Germany in the 1930s and immigrated to Palestine.

Actors