Volker Koepp revisits Zehdenick and Grüneberg, East Germany. People are struggling with the new political and economical conditions shortly before the German Reunification.
Journalist Daniela Dahn interviews the East-German author Christa Wolf during the German reunification: reflections on history, changing politics, life and work.
In late 1990 times are changing in Zehdenick, Brandenburg: Russian troops are leaving, the German Reunification brings euphoria and new hope, but unemployment rises steadily.
The army of the GDR, called NVA had not survived the reunification of Germany, it was completely absorbed by the Bundeswehr and scrapped subsequently. But what apparently went on so smoothly as a peaceful unification of hostile brothers quietly left deep scars in the East German landscape.
The vegetables come from the garden behind the house, the fish comes out of a can, and money for bread is earned at the factory. It’s because of this money that they came here. Women from Turkey stand side-by-side with women form Mecklenburg at the conveyor belt of a fish-processing factory in Lübeck. Their hands are stained brown, the pungent smell of fish clings to them, and their arms and backs ache. If these jobs were done by men, machines would have been invented long ago to replace them. But female labour is cheap and the women do not complain. They have learned to work – and therein lies the source of their pride. (Source: https://www.artechock.de/film/text/filminfo/g/ge/gefubr.htm)
A tragi-comedy telling the story of the adventures of Robin, Anna, Jost and Leo - the meds - who want to be anything but healthy, happy and mediocre. They all live in a large city in West-Germany and are "Westies" to the core. Precocious, disillusioned, morally eroded, politically bored and sexually sated. Always on the run from the next compromise, they are big kids caught up in their mid-twenties crisis. One day in the midst of all this depression the suspicion arises that one of them is in fact a closet "Eastie", a liar and betrayer, an undercover agent, a neo-Nazi or at least a Stalinist...
Outside Time is the second feature film of Andreas Kleinert, a German director who grew up in the GDR and who started making films at the time of the fall of the Wall. The film is set in a small town somewhere in Brandenburg, a place which is rapidly falling "outside time"; since it cannot keep pace with the changes brought about by unification and the transformation of the former GDR. The Russian troops stationed there have withdrawn and their barracks have turned into rat-infested ruins; the intercity trains do not stop there any more and even the regional railway link to Berlin is going to be suspended. Most young people are leaving. When Sophie introduces her lover to her mother and her brother, Sergej becomes embroiled in the incestuous tensions underlying the relationship between Sophie, her brother, Georg, and her mother. The arrival of the Russian implodes the claustrophobic sham existence that held this dysfunctional family together.
In reunified Berlin, a city guide from the Eastern part of the city offers tours for West Berliners and grapples with his pre and post "Wende" identity.
Follows the Eastern German family Schütze and their greengrocer's shop for 10 years, beginning right after Germany's reunification.
Documentation about the intra-German relations after the reunification.
About a journalist and his cameraman visiting East Germany, former GDR, 25 years later again after their journey which took place in January 1990, just between the Fall of the Wall and the reunification with West Germany, comparing the old pictures with the present of 2015 and meeting former interview partners a second time. An impressive work of time documentary showing seemingly surreal scenes about the changings of cities, industrial locations and lifes in different political and economical systems.
Docudrama telling the story of a building with a breath taking career that began in the empire, flourished in the Weimar Republic, perished in the Nazi dictatorship, and was rebuilt after its partial destruction.