“Heimat Is a Space in Time” observes Germany for more than a century through the experiences of one family. The bulk of this experimental essay film, which runs almost four hours, consists of the unseen writer-director, Thomas Heise, reading documents in voice-over — generally letters to and from his relatives, but also résumé drafts, diary entries and, from the Cold War era, a surveillance report.

Heise’s recitations are accompanied by photographs and artifacts from the past or footage from contemporary Germany, particularly landscapes and city scenes. The contrast between the cataclysmic past and the placid present owes something to “Shoah,” Claude Lanzmann’s groundbreaking 1985 Holocaust film. But because most of the testimony in “Heimat” (the word roughly means “homeland”) is filtered through Heise, the structure seems even more oblique.