Back to Berlin

In the summer of 2015, the European Maccabi Games (also known as the Jewish Olympics) were held in Germany for the first time since the Second World War at the Waldbühne Stadion, site of Hitler’s infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics. This symbolic moment is captured in the documentary feature, “Back to Berlin”, which follows eleven modern day motor bikers on a mission to carry the Maccabiah torch, and fly the Israeli flag from Tel Aviv to Berlin. Each destination on the way to Berlin holds a chilling resonance for the riders as they discover and share how their families perished or managed to survive. They find themselves heavily protected by police and a Europe virtually depleted of Jews, clinging on to plaques and memorials as symbols of a time gone by, and once again fearful of rising anti-Semitism. These riders follow in the tracks of the early 1930’s bikers, who in one of the most innovative PR exercises of all time, set out from Palestine to all corners of Europe to search for athletes for the first Maccabi Games in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1932. The documentary also charts the fascinating history of the Maccabiah Movement and puts it into a fresh historical context.