Michael Glawogger’s film, based on the novel by Austrian writer Josef Haslinger, tells the interweaving stories and fates of three families: a Jewish family destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania; the family of the culprit who has escaped to America and lives in hiding; the family of Ratz, the son of a social-democratic politician living in Vienna. This powerful and challenging film explores issues of individual choices made during the Second World War and questions whether it is possible to escape from the ruins of the past.