Theme

The Holocaust, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Ukraine…
Today, it has become critically important to find antidotes to social division and polarisation. It seems that invisible hands skillfully orchestrate hostility, setting one group of people against another, dividing them into “us” and “them.” What can restrain us from the evil inherent in human nature — the evil that patiently waits until an “other” appears, someone who can be blamed and lynched? The paradox is that it takes relatively little time to incite people to the point where they begin to hate and kill one another. After the period of violence ends, everyone will have to learn to live together again; justice, repentance, and forgiveness will be needed — all of which are long and demanding processes.

The Stranger.
This mark of circumstance has weighed on Herman Schulz since childhood. Half German and half Lithuanian, Herman spent his entire life searching for his identity while living far from Lithuania. During the Second World War, Herman’s family, labeled as “Germans,” fled Lithuania to escape the advancing Red Army. Having experienced the harsh fate of an eastern refugee in Germany at an early age, Herman was forced to live in various countries. In Africa, in Rwanda, the Salesian Youth Camp founded by Herman became a true home not only for poor children, but also for Herman himself. In 1994, when genocide engulfed Rwanda, Herman was once again turned into a “stranger,” forced to flee the country and later return to it.

Idea

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
(The Gospel according to Matthew)

The core idea of the film is how much one person with strong faith can achieve. As a child, Herman experienced extreme poverty while living in exile, and he managed to overcome it thanks to the help of good people. Lithuanians living abroad supported refugee children. This encouraged the young Herman to dedicate his life to helping those living in poverty, assisting them in breaking out of social exclusion.

Herman’s determination to help grew from the realization that he could not live peacefully, withdrawn in prayer, while evil existed alongside him. This became the foundation of his faith. Thus, the missionary Herman Schulz and the Youth Camp in Rwanda for orphaned children were born.

Herman did not anticipate how much would be demanded of him to prove the strength of his faith. During the genocide in Rwanda, he lost almost all of the children under his care, who were killed with machetes by bandits while he was briefly away from the camp. This tragedy led Herman into a profound crisis of faith. His faith was saved by the orphans who remained in Rwanda after the genocide and who needed his real, practical help.

Many orphans needed not only safety, shelter, and food, but also parental love and hope for life. There were no child psychotherapists in Rwanda, and Herman was forced to take on the difficult role of healing the spiritual wounds of children with severe post-traumatic experiences.

Having himself experienced what it means to be an “outsider,” and having witnessed how the machinery of war takes away loved ones, Herman understood how people feel when they lose everything that is dear to them.

The hardest thing is to forgive wrongs, but once forgiveness is given, the heart is cleansed and the path to life opens. This is the only way to stop the cycle of revenge.

Herman’s faith and love for these children produced results. Although not everyone succeeded, many of them became educated individuals capable of helping others.

After returning to Lithuania, Herman established a Youth Camp in his native village of Kėkštai. There, he took in children from the Kalotė landfill and socially vulnerable or addicted teenagers. Herman’s faith and perseverance set in motion an almost invisible chain reaction — more and more people from around the world join the mission of help he began. For me, this is an especially important proof of how much one person can accomplish by believing in and living according to their idea.

Synopsis

Beneath the idyllic images of Africa lies a heavy and painful past. Three Rwandans tell their survival stories, in which Father Herman Schulz played a decisive role. We embark on a journey back in time toward the point where the paths of all the film’s protagonists converge, gradually revealing the story of Herman’s life. From the Second World War, exile, and a life of poverty in post-war Germany, through youth in Italy, the first mission in São Paulo, and finally Rwanda — moving closer to the painful and decisive events that would change the destinies of all the protagonists.

Having become a priest and devoted his life to helping children harmed by fate, Herman establishes a youth camp in Rwanda. He saves hundreds of children from hunger and poverty, yet is unable to protect them from the horrific genocide during the war. The film’s protagonists speak about how they managed to come to terms with the traumas of the past. The memory of genocide intertwines with the continuation of life — only through forgiveness can we free ourselves and begin to live and find joy again. The film explores forgiveness as a form of survival — not as weakness, but as the greatest expression of human will.