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Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann documents his relationship with his mother and his love affair with German dancer Andreas Merk. Through intimate filming, the documentary explores inherited trauma, identity, and love beyond historical and personal labels.
AWARDS
Best Mid Length Documentary. Hot Docs Canada
Grand Prix. International Festival of Ethnological Film
Best International Documentary. Astra Film Festival
Best Documentary. Zinegoak Film Festival
Audience Choice Award. Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival
Best Director and Best Documentary. Madrid GLBT Film Festival
Jury Mention. Queer Lisboa
Best Documentary. Official Best of Best
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Document 10 International Human Rights Film Festival
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Barcelona GLBT Film Festival
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Hamburg Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
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Israel Film Festival Montreal
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Festival de Cinema Judaico de Sao Paulo
The FFFilm Project
Weyauwega International Film Festival
EtnoFilm
Trento Film Festival
FestDivQ LGBT Film Festival Venezuela
Days of Jewish Culture Festival Olomuc
Thin Line Film Festival
Filming love, memory and identity across generations and borders
Seventy years after his grandfather escaped Nazi Germany for Palestine, Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann returns to Berlin to present his documentary Paper Dolls at the Berlin International Film Festival. During this trip, he meets Andreas Merk, a German dancer, and a brief encounter develops into a significant and transformative relationship. With a small handheld camera that rarely leaves his side, Heymann documents the unfolding of this love story with disarming openness.
At the same time, the film closely follows Heymann’s relationship with his mother, the daughter of German Jews who fled the Nazi regime and rebuilt their lives in Israel. Her presence anchors the film emotionally and historically, as private family moments intersect with unresolved memories of displacement, loss, and survival. The arrival of Andreas into this family space opens old wounds and sparks conversations about ancestry, guilt, and belonging.
As the relationship between Heymann and Merk deepens during their time in Tel Aviv, the camera becomes both a witness and a catalyst. Its constant presence raises questions about intimacy, consent, and the limits of documentation, particularly when Heymann’s mother repeatedly asks him to stop filming. Rather than offering clear answers, the film allows these tensions to remain visible.
Through everyday gestures, family rituals, and moments of confrontation and tenderness, I Shot My Love becomes an exploration of love between lovers, between mother and son, and between past and present. It is a personal documentary that connects individual emotion to broader historical memory, revealing how inherited trauma continues to shape identity and relationships.
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