This study aims to examine pupils’ experiences of watching historical films in history teaching, and how film can develop the pupils’ historical consciousness and historical empathy. The study examines how pupils’ experience film as a tool for learning in the classroom, what possibilities there are with learning about history through this tool and what obstacles that this method of work brings. The study is conducted by semi-structural interviews through a qualitative approach, with a total of six pupils attending two different high schools in midsouth Sweden. Furthermore, the study will apply historical consciousness and historical empathy as a theoretical framework.

Historical consciousness is a theory based on the understanding of the present and the expectations of the future, through the interpretation of the past. Historical empathy is another theory based on the understanding of the past through people and their actions in the time that they were living in. By understanding the actions of people from the past, the values of that timeframe can be identified and therefore understood.

The results of the study conducted showed that pupils’ experiences of watching films in history teaching led to greater understandings of our own time through understanding how the past has formed the present society, and how this understanding affects the pupils’ expectations of the future. The results of the study also showed that historical films contributes to the pupils’ understandings for people of the past, their situations in life and their actions from the context that they were living in.  Moreover, adding films as a complement tool in teaching, resulted in pupils experiencing a developed level of engagement and enchantment to learn about history. The visualized telling of historical events also resulted in the pupil’s developing an understanding for others in a way they would not otherwise, because of the emotions that the experience offers.