Over twenty years ago now the documentarian Volker Koepp drove to Wittstock, a town in northwestern Brandenburg, where a large textile factory had recently come into being. Koepp shot a total of seven films on the importance of the factory for the prosperity of the town. The film focused upon three women who never hesitated in expressing their true feelings. Then the wall fell, the factory was closed and nearly three thousand workers lost their jobs. This period was also captured by Koepp. From a combination of old and new material he assembled a gripping account that narrates what the political developments of the time meant for the everyday lives of the people in the GDR.
35mm | doc | s/w / b/w
Volker Koepp
Christian Lehmann
Uve Haußig
Edith Dahlke, Elsbeth Fischer, Renate Lust
BR, SFB, ORB
Progress Film-Verleih
Dagmar Bingel
Immanuelkirchstr. 14 b
10405 Berlin
Germany
Tel: +49.30.240 034 02
Fax: +49.30.240 034 99
d.bingel@progress-film.de
www.progress-film.de
Volker Koepp - born 1944 in Stettin (now: Szczecin, Poland). After an apprenticeship as a machine fitter, he studied for two years at Dresden University of Technology before switching to the HFF "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Joined the DEFA studios as a director in 1970, subsequently working upon numerous documentary films.
JUNGE LEUTE (1970, short, doc) GRÜSSE AUS SARMATIEN FÜR DEN DICHTER JOHANNES BOBROWSKI (1972, short, doc) GUSTAV J. (1973, short, doc) ER KÖNNTE JA HEUTE NICHT SCHWEIGEN (1975, short, doc) MÄDCHEN IN WITTSTOCK (1975, short, doc) DAS WEITE FELD (1976) HÜTES-FILM (1977, short, doc) ICH ERINNERE MICH NOCH (1977, short, doc) AM FLUSS (1978, short, doc) HAUS UND HOF (1980, short, doc) LEBEN UND WERBEN (1981, short, doc) IN RHEINSBERG (1982, short, doc) LEBEN IN WITTSTOCK (1984, doc) AFGHANISTAN 1362 – ERINNERUNG AN EINE REISE (1985, doc) AN DER UNSTRUT (1985, short, doc) FEUERLAND (1987, short, doc) MÄRKISCHE ZIEGEL (1989, short, doc) NEUES IN WITTSTOCK (1992, doc) KALTE HEIMAT – LEBEN IM NÖRDLICHEN OSTPREUSSEN (1995, doc) HERR ZWILLING UND FRAU ZUCKERMANN (1999, doc) KURISCHE NEHRUNG/OSTPREUSSEN (2001, doc) UCKERMARK (2002, doc, Cottbus 2007) EWIGE ORTE (2003, doc) DIESES JAHR IN CZERNOWITZ (2004, doc) SCHATTENLAND – REISE NACH MASUREN (2005, doc) HOLUNDERBLÜTE (2007, Cottbus 2007)