Women in Berlin

The graduation film by Indian film student Chetna Vora at the Film and Television University in Potsdam-Babelsberg interviews women in East Berlin about their lives in 1981. The film features 14 women between the ages of 11 and 83 who speak about their lives, their hopes and experiences in work and relationships with unusual candor for a GDR production. The discrepancy between their own desires and experieced reality becomes evident.
The original film, over two hours in lenght, was destroyed at the instigation of the university after the first screening of the rough cut, as Chetna Vora refused to edit her film down to a length of 43 minutes as demanded by her supervisors. She managed to salvage a secretly filmed copy of the rough cut, which has been preserved. There is also a 23-minute short version produced by the university without the director's involvement, from which any critical tones were cut. Shortly after this experience, Chetna Vora left the GDR in 1983 with her partner and daughter and moved back to India, where she died at the age of only 29 in 1987.
Women in Berlin is considered one of the most candid documentaries about the lives of women in the GDR.
Director: Chetna Vora, 1983, 135 min

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