The essay film Heimattreu explores the destructive tendencies of restorative nostalgia and its powerful visual narratives, which - especially in digital spaces - promise reactionary fantasies of a homeland and a return to a phantom homeland. Ambivalent images and visual narratives are thematized, which are primarily shared on the social media platform Instagram. There, the New Right uses visual aesthetics and themes such as nature, “homeland protection”, femininity or “heroic identity” in a targeted attempt to win over young people to their own political content and make it socially acceptable. Depictions of women in particular serve as allegories of fascist ideology. Images that operate in the “pre-political” sphere are intended to promote a “meta-political consensus” in society.
The essay film takes a critical look at these visual subjects and visual aesthetics and places them in the context of their ideology.