SCHLESIENS WILDER WESTEN

What is home? A place, a person, a feeling, a memory?

"I like living in place I know the history of", says a young Polish man. He lives in Kopaniec, formerly Seifershau - a village in lower Schlesia. The film uncovers the history of this place through the memories of it's inhabitants, who's lives mirror the experiences of millions of people. Between the past and the present lies the expulsion of the Germans and the settlement of the Poles, who were often driven from their homes in the Ukraine themselves. All of them tried their luck in lower Schlesia: families from central Poland, which had been destroyed in many parts; former Polish slave workers; Polish ex-soldiers who had been issued some land here.

Since the mid-seventies, groups of visitors have been coming to Kopaniec in buses. They are people searching for a home, which no longer is their home. A young Polish woman recounts: "When we were children and where feeling brave, we yelled after them: "Hitler kaput! Hitler kaput!"

The life-stories of the older Poles and Germans tell of the war and the expulsion, but also of the times, when they lived in the village together.