The Ditch

Southern Carinthia: For many decades, Slovenes and German-speaking Carinthians have been living here side by side. Ditches or "grape" -- that's what they call the side valleys in Southern Carinthia. And ditches divide the inhabitants like trenches to this day, sometimes even within families. The Slovenian peasants lived in the ditches, while the Germans were tradespersons and factory owners in the main valley. During and after the war, the coexistence turned into enmity. After the war, the hostility between the two ethnic groups petrified. Distrust, defiance, and ignorance conceal deep wounds on both sides. The guerrilla war of the Slovenes was the only armed resistance against the Nazi regime in Austria. Now, in "The Ditch," the cultural associations of both groups are working together for the first time to overcome the last 100 years. With the method of "participatory reenactments," contemporary witnesses' stories are filmed with original props at the actual locations. In the microcosm of the Vellach Valley, where perpetrators and victims were and are neighbors, and these roles often even reversed, history comes alive.