GARTEN DER HOFFNUNG

What happens if an area between blocks of houses is reclaimed and residents get a piece of garden? This is what happened on the Großer Dreesch, a prefabricated housing estate built during GDR times on the outskirts of Schwerin, the state capital of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The idea was to create a place where socially needy, old and lonely people, as well as those displaced by war, could find each other and a piece of home through dealing with “Mother Earth”. The film follows events in the garden for 18 months, hears life stories from near and far and asks whether dealing with a small piece of nature can alleviate loneliness, material hardship and the loss of home.