ZUR FALSCHEN ZEIT AM FALSCHEN ORT

Matthias was Marinus' closest friend in Potzlow, a small town with 450 inhabitants. The problems here are typical for rural areas in eastern Germany: high unemployment, no prospects. Those who can, move to a bigger city on graduating from school. Matthias also wants to leave since, unlike some other villagers, he cannot suppress what has happened. He knows he could easily have been the victim. His father describes him as a defenceless conformist who should have gone to a special school. Both are shown at garden parties and having BBQs at the lake with friends, where someone is always pushed around for fun or even, being drunk and defenceless, pushed into the lake. This speaks of the dangerous normality of a toxic mixture of stagnation, boredom, frustration and aggression, which resulted from the social upheaval after the fall of the Wall. In Daniel Abmas' BEYOND WRIEZEN the case of 2012 is taken up again, as one of the perpetrators is accompanied for three years after his release from prison and finds the same problems still waiting “outside”. RB