The End of the Neubacher Project

Eight years in the making, The End of the Neubacher Project traces filmmaker Marcus Carney's troubling journey into his family's Nazi past. The Neubachers were key players in Austrian National Socialism (Carney's grandfather was prominent enough within the Nazi hierarchy to enjoy hunting trips with Hermann Goering). Carney tackles his dying grandmother's refusal to face up to personal involvement in the anti-Semitism of 1930s Vienna, but his mother becomes the project's real focus. Torn between love for her parents and outward rejection of fascism, her sharp decline after being diagnosed with cancer during filming is documented with unflinching candour. "If you ever marry an American or a Jew, I'll shoot you" her father had warned after World War II; marry an American she did, but her estranged husband has his own opinions on her honesty over the Neubacher legacy. Shot on 35mm film with extensive use of family footage and archive material, this extraordinary work - Carney's "epic home movie" - confronts painful taboos with immense courage.