To this day, tens of thousands of human remains from former colonies are stored in German museum depots. It is unclear how they can be identified and returned. The Empty Grave (Germany/Tanzania, 2024) follows two families on a search for their ancestors. In southern Tanzania, the lawyer John Mbano and his wife Cesilia search for traces of his great-grandfather, who was executed by German colonial forces in 1906, after which his head was taken to Germany for racist ‘research purposes’. The pain of this haunts the family to this day. In northern Tanzania, Felix and Ernest Kaaya face a similar situation. Fighting to have an ancestor’s remains returned, they travel to the metropolis of Dar es Salaam.

The families wrestle with bureaucratic complications while also receiving help from activists such as Mnyaka Sururu Mboro and Konradin Kunze, who have lent visibility to the issue in Germany. Through their help, the Mbanos are received in the Federal Foreign Office, and ultimately Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier makes a visit to their home city to apologize for the suffering they have endured. The great-grandfather’s grave, however, remains empty.

In their film, the German-Tanzanian directorial duo Agnes Lisa Wegner and Cece Mlay explore the trauma that German colonial rule has left behind in Tanzanian communities—along with the strength and self-determination of the survivors, who continue stubbornly campaigning for the full history to be told.

Directors: Agnes Lisa Wegner, Cece Mlay
Cinematography: Markus Winterbauer
Editing: Donni Schoenemond
Music: Hannah von Hübbenet
Sound Design: Oliver Stahn
Producers: Christoph Holthof, Daniel Reich, Amil Shivji & Luna Selle
Commissioning Editor: Sara Günter (ZDF)
Production: kurhaus production and Kijiweni Productions in co-production with ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel
Distributed by: Salzgeber 

More information about the programme can be found here.

In cooperation with Leipziger Missionswerk