De Man met de Glimlach - Chassé Cinema

Based on the travel account of his Jewish father Bram Cohen, his diary notes from the Japanese internment camp, and previously unseen archival material, he paints a picture of post-World War II Europe through his father's eyes. 

In the spring of 1947, the young student Bram Cohen travels by train through Germany, on his way to Copenhagen. His Jewish family has been half murdered. With bitterness, he looks at the destroyed land and the defeated people. “The hunger shows on their faces. Good, not enough yet!”, he writes in his travel diary. But at the station in Hamburg, everything changes. 

Along the tracks, young children with crooked legs wander through the calcification. Instead of hate, Bram feels forgiveness and compassion. He shares his bread with a five-year-old girl. Once in Copenhagen, Bram falls in love with a young Danish woman, with whom he will marry. Director Paul Cohen is their youngest son. 

In The Man with the Smile, we retrace this train journey and meet contemporary travelers who also each have a story about forgiveness. Paul Cohen also wrote a book about the fate of his grandfather Aäron and his father Bram during and shortly after the war. The book will be available from April 2026.