Dear friends of documentaries,

In spring 2024, I started on one of the most exciting projects of my film career. It all has begun with an email to Amos, and has since developed into a documentary film project. With a fantastic and enthusiastic team, I have been working to turn this into an impressive and worthwhile film. Next year, I AM AMOS will hopefully be presented to the public at festivals and is expected to be released in theaters in fall 2026.

I AM AMOS
Summary

Amos Ritter looks back on a fulfilling life in Israel. He was born in Haifa in 1957, lived there with his family, and worked as a doctor and psychotherapist. In June 2024, he will emigrate to the country from which his Jewish ancestors fled to Palestine in 1939 because of the Nazis. Amos sees the terrorist attack by the Hamas on October 7, 2023, as the culmination of a long conflict. He used to believe in peace between Jews and Palestinians and volunteered for a mobile clinic in Palestinian villages in the West Bank. But there is more and more violence. So living in Israel makes him “sick” and involves a lot of stress. His adult children, Alon and Noga, already live in Europe. His son Eran is helping him move to Germany and also wants to emigrate. Amos is moving into the house he and his wife Michal once bought as a vacation home. When she died in 2022, some of her ashes were scattered at sea near Haifa, while the rest were laid to rest in a forest cemetery on the Moselle River – a symbol for Amos of the ambivalence of his life. He stands between two countries and two cultures, and then he finds a new love. When his children visit, they eat together and speak Hebrew, and it feels like life in Israel, like home. “Where are my roots?” Amos asks. In Hamburg, he tries to find answers together with his brother Dan and his sister Jael, who still live in Israel. He joins them in tracing the footsteps of their mother and grandparents. The film depicts emigration, which is marked by both hope and melancholy. I AM AMOS tells the moving story of a Jewish family searching for identity and a new beginning in the shadow of the Middle East conflict. Israeli, German, Jewish – Amos says of himself, “I am simply a human being. I am Amos.”

The trailer for the funding campaign can be viewed on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/1096162831

I would appreciate it if you could mention this project in your circles and accompany it with comments and thoughts until its publication.

We will keep you updated with news on this website and on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/iamamosfilm/

Best regards,
Christian Pietscher