The Shop

In 1919, nine-year-old Esau Matt moves with his parents and grandparents from Poland to a German border village in Lower Lusatia. The family opens a small grocer's shop in the village, which soon becomes the hub of events in the village. With three generations under one roof, tensions and difficulties are bound to arise. The sensitive Esau, who will later become a writer, quietly and wonderingly observes the life that goes on in and around the shop. The Sorbian-German writer Erwin Strittmatter (1912-1994) created an outstanding work of German-language literature with his autobiographical trilogy of novels 'The Shop' (1983/1987/1992). Director Jo Baier and his cinematographer Gernot Roll ('Heimat') sensitively filmed the novel. In June 1919, the Matt family moved to the small village of Bossdom in Lower Lusatia near the German-Polish border. There she opens a general store with her own bakery. At the center of the story is the nine-year-old Esau Matt, who is an attentive observer of his family and village life.