#heimkommen ("Coming Home")
Edeka2015
#heimkommen ("Coming Home") is a 2015 online film for Edeka, created by Jung von Matt, Hamburg.
Why it works
An old man, left alone at Christmas year after year, sends out notice of his own death so that his scattered children finally come home, then greets the mourners at a laid table: how else could he have brought them all together? The German supermarket chain released the film on YouTube on 28 November 2015, with a shorter cut for television to follow. It travelled far beyond Germany within days, drawing close to 10 million YouTube views by 1 December according to The Guardian and around 2.4 million shares by 10 December, which Horizont reported put it ahead of John Lewis and Sainsbury's that season. It is studied as the case that an emotional, story-led Christmas film need not come from a British retailer, and as a lesson in tackling an uncomfortable social truth, loneliness in old age, more bluntly than the category usually dares. Horizont later called it the blueprint for a wave of socially minded Christmas campaigns.
Techniques
- Pathos The film confronts the loneliness of an elderly father left alone each Christmas, a painful truth that gives the family reunion its emotional force.
- Storytelling A father announces his own death so his scattered children finally come home, then greets the mourners at a laid table in a final twist.
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