“The old world lies shattered, the new world not yet born – now is the time of monsters.” This quote by Italian writer and politician Antonio Gramsci was perhaps the most important dramatic guideline for our work on WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG. Gramsci wrote these words after the disaster of WW I, foreshadowing the catastrophe of WW II. In the ruins of the old system he saw the seeds of new violence. Our film is set in such a time of transition. In 1992, Germany was newly reunited, the socialist East German regime had collapsed and the power – and ideological — vacuum allowed destructive right-wing forces to flourish. We also face a fundamental crisis today. In 2008 our economic system crashed. And sadly, the two ugly daughters of crises – intolerance and xenophobia – are now on the rise all over Europe. 20 years after the actual events, this is the first film about the attempted genocide in Rostock. Our film tells the story of the monsters, their victims, and the people who chose to ignore them. We wanted to give the monsters a human face, look them in the eye and understand.