Amnesia

Amnesia is a 2015 Swiss-French drama film directed by Barbet Schroeder. It was selected to screen in the Special Screenings section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Set in 1990 on the idyllic island of Ibiza, through a platonic love affair between a young man and a much older woman the film explores the reactions of three generations of Germans to the horrific crimes of Nazi Germany. Schroeder wrote that two of his aims for the film were “to make refusing the use of a language the main dramatic driver” and “to recount a love story advancing without sex, thanks to a series of unspoken agreements”. Plot Martha has lived by herself for decades in an isolated villa. Though German, she refuses to have anything to do with her native country: she will not speak or read the language and will not even ride in a VW Beetle, since that condones the evil of the regime that created the vehicle. At the only villa nearby arrives Jo, a young German who is a talented composer of electronic music and wants to make a career as a techno DJ. He is fascinated by Martha, even though she insists on speaking English, and the two solitary neighbours become close.