Sixty years after the end of the Second World War, with all the crimes and devastation that resulted from it, the effects are still being felt even in our present-day society. However, today we are also experiencing the diverse efforts being made on the part of the political institutions and the citizens themselves to achieve understanding and reconciliation.
Students of film and the fine arts have broached the issue of gestures of reconciliation in individual exposes which they submitted in order to enter the short film contest. To these students Gestures of Reconciliation can be experienced on a political level, in civic and religious initiatives, in inter human relations as well as in sciences and the arts.
Juries from the eleven countries participating in the “Gestures of Reconciliation” competition have selected a total of 29 winning entries. All prize-winning films were screened on Saturday, 19 November 2005, at the Munich Film Museum during the Munich International Festival of Film Schools. Four of the films from the competition "Gestures of Reconciliation", organized by the Goethe-Institut and the "Remembrance and Future" fund, were also screened in the festival´s international competition.
In the tv program of January 19th 2007 the Deutsche Welle featured the project "Gestures of Reconciliation".
