“Emmett − Tief in meinem Herzen” (“Emmett – Deep in My Heart”) is a film with theatrical elements, telling the story of the 14-year-old Black teenager Emmett Till, who became the victim of a racist murder in Mississippi, USA, in 1955. This murder is considered the spark for the civil rights movement in the USA as well as a global, public-media confrontation with racism.
Emmett’s story is not an exclusively Black or American story. Emmett had to die because he (allegedly) whistled after a White woman, while his killers were acquitted by an all-male, all-White jury, only to openly admit to the murder in an interview a short time later. “Cases like Emmett's are repeated in Germany and around the world. They affect us all – they are the stories of each and every one of us. Almost 70 years after Emmett Till’s murder, we live in a world that is still shaped by structural racism.