A journey through time and East Germany, 30 years after reunification as well as the first trip that the director and cameraman undertook through the then newly collapsed GDR. What remains of the hopes, fears and changes?

A few months after the fall of the Wall in November 1989, the West German director Wolfgang Ettlich and his cameraman Hans-Albrecht Lusznat embarked on a journey into the unknown, camera in hand. They repeated the undertaking several times since then, but are now doing it for the last time: what started as an inquisitive road trip through the East German provinces has become as much of a road movie as it is a document of the times. Ettlich and Lusznat revisit people that they also interviewed and captured on film back then, asking about their former hopes and fears: Have they been fulfilled? Were they justified? What was the road to capitalism like? But they also approach people on the side of the road or in supermarket parking lots and record, then as now, the changes that have been inscribed in people's biographies and faces, in the places and landscapes, and also – rather unintentionally – in cinematic aesthetics, due to technical progress.


Reviews and Commentary:
"Equipped with a new camera, the two try to recreate the earlier camera perspectives. As was done back then, Ettlich is filmed at the wheel from the passenger seat – the sound of the engine in the background is quieter, and you can hear a navigation system. At that time, Ettlich told Lusznat: 'Leave it running when I talk. When I talk to people on the street, you automatically have to leave the camera running.' And then as now, the camera is left running whenever passers-by and roasted-chicken vendors open up to his questions and him. Since his first trip through the GDR, he has frequently travelled eastwards – and made documentaries about his trips: once after ten years, and then after 15. This kind of long-term observation is what interests Ettlich. 'With other topics, it was always fascinating to come back every half year and see how the people and places had changed. A long-term documentary simply allows you to see more of a certain attitude to life, and how and why it changes,' says Ettlich. [...] In the film, Ettlich asks people about how they feel now, 30 years after reunification. He himself says: 'You can't talk about Dresden, Leipzig or Chemnitz; but in the small towns, on the border with Poland, people are skipping town and heading west. And what's actually always a topic is why Germany hasn't managed to create economic equality.' A taxi driver in Forst (Lausitz) talks about inequalities in pensions and wages, and views this as the reason behind the surge in AfD voters. And when two AfD voters, a mother and her daughter, have their say, they let loose the xenophobia – there is no discussion. 'I don't touch what the people say, and leave it for the viewer to think about,' says Ettlich. Back in the car, he reflects upon the shocking, emotional, and urban planning-related encounters. Warm hugs and a big smile reveal that over the years friendships have developed. The film is not only about 30 years of reunification, but also about the interpersonal between people."
(Marleen Beisheim, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 20.10.2020)

"Shortly after the fall of the Wall, as the GDR unravelled, Ettlich travelled through the country with his cameraman Hans-Albrecht Lusznat. 'An expedition to an unknown country,' as he puts it. 'When the Wall came down, I had to take a look. I grew up next to the Wall in Neukölln (Berlin), and often ran over to East Berlin to buy a soft drink for 20 pfennigs.'
The experiences in places like Zittau, Zschopau, Forst or Chemnitz kept a grip on him. [...]
In the contrasts found in the old shots, changes become visible. It is not just about the external changes, however. It's about the internal, about what reunification has done to the people. The intensive search for traces is occasionally tinged with nostalgia, but also with hopes and disappointments. The former SED mayor ruefully says, 'We used to be a family, which isn't possible anymore'; two married teachers say that they would never want 'to go back to the GDR, that would be the bottom of the barrel'; and the counterperson of the chicken snack bar intones, Solomon-like, 'Some have become happy, others have not'."
(Margret Köhler, Abendzeitung [Munich], 26.10.2020)

Frederik Lang, 13.04.2021

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2020

Production Year

2020

color

color

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Documentary

Genre

Road Movie

Topic

Home, Fall of the Wall / Reunification, Friendship, GDR, Socialism / Communism

Available Media

DVD, Blu-ray Disc, DCP, Digital Film

Original Version

German (de)

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Czech (cs), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt)

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt), Czech (cs)

DCP

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt), Czech (cs)

Digital Film

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt), Czech (cs)