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Summary
Richard Plant was born in Germany in 1910. In his early twenties he escaped to Switzerland and ultimately settled in New York. In Plant’s own words, he "emigrated as a Jew to survive as a homosexual."
During the Nazi era, Americans offered political and spiritual exile to those fleeing Europe, and theologian Paul Tillich helped Plant secure a job and find a place to live. In time, Plant became a professor of German literature and taught for 26 years at New York’s City College. He also wrote regularly for The New York Times and The New Yorker. He remained faithful to the leftist party even under McCarthy’s America, and throughout, hid his homosexuality.
After retiring in the 1970s, Plant dedicated himself to writing. He went to Germany to research the persecution of homosexuals, and his book on the subject, Pink Triangle, was published in the U.S. in 1986.
Alexander Karp was born in New York but now lives in Frankfurt, Germany. He knows Richard Plant only from his books, but his experiences resemble those of Plant’s, particularly the feeling of isolation in a foreign country, of persecution and fear. Interested in learning more about Plant, he returns to New York and sets out to meet the man whose story has so profoundly affected him.
I Have Two Faces is a film about the private odyssey of two men, born decades apart but bound by common ground. As Karp retraces Plant’s footsteps of more than a half a century before, he tries to understand what it meant to be a homosexual and a Jew in an era of unchecked persecution. His ultimate goal is to interview a man whose political and personal journey stands as a testament of survival—and an inspiration to younger generations.
In German (with English subtitles) and English (with German subtitles)
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