Logline

From tunnels underneath the Harz Mountains, where camp inmates assembled Nazi V2

rockets in hellish conditions, Werner Von Braun’s path continued across the American

NASA to the surface of the Moon. The long and bloody road to the Moon.

Synopsis

Boris Nemec, son of Franc Nemec, narrates his father’s story, a story straight from hell.

In 1943, Franc Nemec, a Liberation Front connection for Šempeter near Gorica, Slovenia gets betrayed by a fellow villager and taken by the Gestapo to Nordhausen. He dies on April 4^th 1945, six days before witnessing freedom, killed by British bombs.

What exactly happened on 3 and 4 April, remains a mystery and is currently being studied by German and British scholars. The study hasn’t been published so far.

In the US battle to conquer the Moon, Von Braun became from war crime engineer into American hero, his V2 rocket was born in hell and ultimately served to land on the Moon epilogue

War is an arms suppliers’ festival.

This film is our call for peace. We want to be seen and heard, hence this film, backed by facts from the past, for a true freedom, kinship and brotherhood of the people of the future.

Director’s Statement

From tunnels underneath the Harz Mountains, where camp inmates assembled Nazi V2 rockets in hellish conditions, Werner Von Braun’s path continued across the American NASA to the surface of the Moon. The long and bloody road to the Moon.

In the film, I will pay tribute to a fellow countryman, the recently deceased writer Boris Pahor, and in particular his Necropolis, the world’s central literary work describing the terror in the camps.

Graphic animation of the maps will provide a geographical overview and a better understanding of the places, cities, landscapes where the crimes took place.

Behind the scenes are concrete people with interesting fates. One of them is Werner Von Braun. A special chapter in the film will be devoted to Operation Paperclip, when the US government smuggled more than 1,500 Nazis onto its soil to be used in its strategic plans.

When the Berlin Wall came down, the phrase “No more walls and no more wars” was very popular. The film ends with footage of wars being fought around the world today.

Tanja Gruden – producer

Jurinj Gruden – Director

Short Bio of the director

Jurij Gruden is a film director, graduated from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Jurij wrote scripts and directed several documentary films.

His last feature documentary SPARKS IN TIME won Grand prix award at the History film festival in Rijeka, Croatia in 2022 and he was also awarded as best director.

The documentary received a Special Jury Award at the Festival of Slovenian Film in 2021.