Burning Memories (2019)

Ellen-Astri Lundby’s haunting documentary traces the stories of six elders in Norway who grew up under the weight of World War II. Reconciling the horrors of the past with the present, the elders recount their time as young people as they describe the reality of their childhoods. During the country’s fall in 1944, more than 50,000 civilians were deported to the south, and another 20,000 more forced to flee their homes, becoming refugees in the same country they called home. In the present day, the film follows the survivors as they meet with refugees, also children, from Syria and Sudan. Both groups carry similar memories of war, hardship and impossible horrors, and both the elders and audiences are presented with the same question–how will the wartime memories of today’s refugee children affect them as adults?