SECTION: Everything stays different?

There is a lot of discussion and speculation about East Germany today. Stories of people from the time after the Peaceful Revolution until today. 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall it is time for a new look: Did everything go too fast back then? Has everything changed, and if so, how?

Everything stays different? – A film series on the unification period and its aftermath

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall discussions about the events of 1989/90 and the post-reunification era in Germany are more lively than ever. In public discourse images of freedom and a newfound autonomy contrast with those of social upheaval and a supposed colonisation of the East by the West. Against a background of globalisation and debates on migration the successes of right-wing populist parties and a general mood of protest, especially in eastern Germany, represent an ever greater challenge to liberal democracy. To what extent have the processes of transition, some of which continue to this day, set the course for the present and perhaps also for the future? How can interrelations between the past and current social conflicts be understood? And how might these conflicts be used to generate greater mutual understanding and a constructive shaping of society?

The series Everything stays different? presents different perspectives on social, cultural and personal developments across a total of twelve feature and documentary films, most of which are presented at this year's FFC, produced between the years 1990 and 2019: complete with contemporary documents which bore witness to the processes in question; directors who take a retrospective look thereupon; with perspectives from East and West and with a cinematic exploration of the one-time neighbours of the former Czechoslovakia and their respective takes on the nineties.

Everything stays different? tells the stories of people from eastern Germany and beyond whilst exploring identity issues which are again today coming to the surface. Where do we stand between a spirit of optimism and personal ruptures, between our own socialisation and wider societal narratives, between East and West, between a shared history and a united future? CR

Everything stays different? is supported by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.