RESTORATION

Germany 2023 — Directed by: Gudrun Gruber — 72 min — Spoken language: English — Subtitles: English — Production Company: NeoSolaris Film - Gudrun Gruber Filmproduktion — Producer: Gudrun Gruber — Script: Gudrun Gruber and Sabrina Banks — Photography: Bernd Effenberger — Editing: Sophie Oldenbourg — Sound: Andrew Mottl — Music: Dominik Giesriegl — Co-production: University of Television and Film Munich

More than a decade after a sexual assault in her teen years, Detroit resident Sabrina struggles to get by. Non-epileptic seizures and other post-traumatic symptoms deprive her of her mobility and her freedom. Her father, Darnell, who owns an auto repair shop in the city, is one of her closest confidants. Every day he makes himself available to drive his daughter where she needs to go. Together with her husband Tim, the two men form a cocoon around the young woman, but questions of guilt surrounding the past and her illness dominate family life. The vacant house of Sabrina’s godmother, a source of her wounding, becomes the focal point in her need to confront that awful night. Sabrina decides to return to both – her trauma place and her own voice as a writer and speaker – to come to terms with her violent past. A film about post-traumatic growth and self restoration.