What makes us who we are? Origin, mother tongue, nationality? What if we lose them?
In search of her own roots, the director explores an indigenous people in Germany: the Sorbs, the smallest Slavic people. Their language and culture have either disappeared or are severely threatened by centuries of oppression and pressure to assimilate. But a new generation no longer wants to accept this: Anna, a law student, becomes a Sorbian Hanka and joins the family of Ignac, who is committed to Sorbian self-determination. Petra comes to terms with the trauma she suffered when her village, like many other Sorbian villages, had to make way for a lignite mine. The young artist Hella redefines being Sorbian as alternative, anti-fascist and feminist. Former hooligan Měto turned his life around after discovering his Sorbian roots. His grandfather, who was beaten up as a child for speaking Sorbian, is battling dementia. National Sorbian poet Jurij Koch reflects on survival against all odds. Ginter, whose parents had to provide an “Aryan Certificate” in the 1930s and raised him speaking German, wonders about his identity today in old age.
Metaphorical images of nature, poetic reflections of a first-person narrator and archaic but experimental Sorbian music interplay in the first-ever film about Sorbs.