An animated documentary that poses difficult questions about the human capacity to forgive unimaginable atrocities, Nils Bergendal's 10-minute short German Shepherd is the fascinating account of a man raised to despise a nation of people. With most of his Mother's family eradicated in the Holocaust, Jewish American David Paul explains how he battled to overcome a childhood fear in which the monsters under the bed were Nazis.

"We are all capable of learning from history, even to reconcile unimaginable evil acts"

Describing the narrative of his film as "a personal coming-of-age story with a universal message", director Bergendal explained (in conversation with Short of the Week) why he felt David Paul's story was one worth sharing. "It boils down to questioning the world your parents and teachers present to you", the filmmaker reveals. "We are all capable of learning from history, even to reconcile unimaginable evil acts. But you have to start with yourself. David is fearless about posing delicate questions. That´s very inspiring".

Having worked as a photographer and filmmaker since 1990, this is Bergendal's first animated work, but for a director new to this specific medium, he gets his approach just right. Employing a simple aesthetic for his film, German Shepherd is a short that shuns an overly complicated style, opting to put the focus on the powerful and compelling story which unfolds during its 10-minute duration.

Originally shooting German Shepherd as a live-action short where David is walking through Berlin passing various historical sites, Bergendal decided to scrap that initial approach as it was "visually quite poor". Returning to Sweden, hoping to figure out the best way to tell this story, the director took the brave step of turning to animation for his short, even though he had no experience in this field. "I had no skills in animation but decided to give it a try - make a sketch in order to raise money", says Bergendal. "After many rejections I finally got a budget and the advice from the Swedish Film Institute to animate the whole thing myself. It was a timeconsuming process but turned out to be a quite rewarding".

With a photo exhibition currently on show in Sweden, a new book and a new film project in the works, you can find out more about Nils in the link below.

Big thanks to the folks over at Aeon Videos for sharing this doc with us