Eine einzelne Tat

The 15-year-old Yezidi Arkan Hussein Khalaf is stabbed to death in Celle in northern Germany. The police questions, interrogates, autopsies, searches, reconstructs, preserves, records – 1700 pages. An approach to structural racism via investigation files, football and growing up in Celle. The essayistic documentary reads the files and asks about their performativity: Which terms find their way into the verdict, and which get lost? It examines the imprints of those writing the narrative about the crime. Major football events from 1990 to 2014 serve as chroniclers of the formation of German identity: from Helmut Kohl, the attacks of the early 90s, to the patriotism of the summer fairy tale of 2006, and the myth of the diverse world champion in 2014. It contrasts this with Arkan＇s family. How did they experience the night of the crime? Why is it clear to them that it was racism? The film dives through files, newspaper articles, archive material, images of small-town idylls and football matches. It explores the migration history of the Yezidi as so-called “Gastarbeiter” in Celle, forgotten right-wing attacks and the filmmaker＇s own growing up in Celle. As part of the white-dominant society, she feels her own longing: let it be a coincidence that it hit Arkan. What’s behind this longing?