We are the people - love knows no boundaries
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | We are the people - love knows no boundaries |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 184 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Thomas Berger |
| script | Silke Zertz |
| production |
Viola Jäger , Fred Kogel , Harald Kügler , Molly von Fürstenberg |
| music | Dieter Schleip |
| camera | Gero Steffen |
| cut | Monika Abspacher |
| occupation | |
| |
We are the people - love knows no borders is a German two-part TV series from 2008 that deals in detail with the 1989 resistance in the GDR . Directed by Thomas Berger act Anja Kling and Hans-Werner Meyer in the lead roles.
On September 24, 2008, the film celebrated its world premiere in Berlin in a streamlined 90-minute version. The film premiered on TV on October 6th and 7th, 2008 on Sat.1 . Another version has a running time of 125 minutes.
action
In August 1983 Mattis Schell and Andreas Wagner undertook a daring attempt to escape over the Berlin Wall from East Berlin . While Andreas managed to escape, Mattis was shot by border guards. His brother Micha and his sister Katja Schell, who are friends with Andreas and are expecting a child from him, remain behind, which he did not yet know at the time of his escape.
Six years later, dissatisfaction with the government of the GDR , especially among the younger generation, has grown even greater. Katja now has a six-year-old son and plans to flee with him across the Hungarian border to the Federal Republic of Germany . Her brother Micha wants to stop her, but she is determined and can hardly wait to see Andreas again. Together with her son Sven, Katja tries to reach the Austrian border from Hungary in the middle of the night , but they lose sight of each other and the boy is initially on his own. While he manages to come to Austria and join a group of refugees there, Katja is discovered and brought back to East Berlin against her will.
There the resistance against the state and its surveillance system is formed in regular Monday demonstrations in which Katja's brother is actively involved. Together with his friend Dirk Faber, he wants to secretly smuggle footage from the demos and the resulting police violence to West Berlin, where Andreas puts it directly on television. The equipment is secretly brought to them by couriers, which Andreas organizes. They know that they are the focus of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), but they cleverly trick them. In order to stop Andreas Wagner and his “subversive and defamatory” reporting, Katja's unsuccessful escape is very fitting for the authorities. Immediately after her arrival in East Berlin, she was taken into custody by the State Security and had to endure all kinds of harassment. She is taken to a prison and receives no information about where her son is. Instead, she is put under pressure by the Stasi officer Bert Schäfer. If she were willing to work against Andreas, she would be able to see her child again. Nevertheless, Katja refuses to cooperate with the authorities. One wants to break her will with torturous interrogations, humiliating harassment and sleep deprivation. She is even medically sedated as soon as she begins to rebel.
In the meantime, Andreas receives notification that his son Sven is in a reception camp . He immediately drives to him to take him to himself. He now also learns of Katja's imprisonment, which stimulates his ambition to report on the situation in the GDR even more. At first, however, his relationship with Sven gives him big problems. Only slowly does he find access to the boy who has never seen his father before and who greatly misses his mother.
In East Berlin, resistance to the demos continues to form. There is a public call for the release of political prisoners, including Katja Schell's. At a demonstration on the occasion of Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to mark the 40th anniversary of the GDR, police violence escalated and the demonstrators were brutally beaten. Among many others, Jule Hoffmann, the daughter of the police officer and "Colonel of the Interior" Bernd Hoffmann and her friend Lutz Baumann are temporarily arrested. Jule has to see what measures the executors of state power are capable of, to which theoretically her father also belongs. She returns home traumatized and makes up her mind not to let anyone dictate anything to her. She packs her things and moves in with Lutz. Her father is outraged and informs his manager of his daughter's misconduct. But he too is slowly beginning to doubt his superiors and the legislation.
In order to force reporting from the GDR, Micha and Dirk want to go to Leipzig and make film recordings of the Monday demo there. But since they are under constant observation by the Stasi , it is not easy for them to leave Berlin without their persecutors. On the way to Leipzig they overtake countless military trucks, which suggests that massive police intervention is imminent. Arrived in Leipzig , the two post themselves on a roof, from where they can clearly see the demonstration. They are amazed to find that thousands of Leipzig citizens are on the streets, but they cannot look forward to their film recordings for long, because Stasi officers are on their heels. Micha and Dirk manage to mingle with the demonstrators and successfully hand over their footage to the contact man. When the recordings are shown on television, the GDR can no longer deny its crisis and announces changes in government. First, Erich Honecker resigns as Chairman of the State Council and appoints Egon Krenz as his successor.
Regardless of this, the State Security remains true to its tasks and continues to pursue all opponents of the regime. After weeks of torture, Stasi officer Bert Schäfer manages to get Katja to cooperate, but that night she tries to commit suicide. So she did not learn that on November 9th the GDR regime capitulated and opened the borders. The GDR citizens are enthusiastic about this sensational news, but the security organs are overwhelmed. In an endless stream of travelers, the citizens of Berlin crowd into the western part of the city. When Jule also enthusiastically wants to pick up Lutz, she finds a farewell letter. In a long letter, he confesses to her that he only worked with her friends because he spied on them on behalf of the Stasi. Although his love for her would be real, he dare not step under her eyes now.
With the opening of the Wall, Andreas also hopes for the release of his Katja. He and Sven meet the stream of visitors and the boy is now looking forward to seeing his uncle Micha again. But they don't find his mother among the many people.
The next day, an ambulance takes Katja to a taxi in which Andreas and Sven are waiting for her. All three tearfully but happily embrace each other.
criticism
“Against the backdrop of the political events in autumn 1989, the television drama develops a series of private entanglements that charge the events emotionally, but tend to distract from the importance of the“ gentle ”revolution. The portrayal of the GDR civil rights movement as a generation conflict may be partially correct, but the fixation of gender roles falsifies historical truth. The perfection with which the film endeavors to reproduce external details in an authentic manner is in contradiction to the role clichés that neither do justice to the GDR reality of the time nor are they suitable as a model for the present. "
Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv sees it a bit more positively and writes: “The Sat-1 two-parter creates a great social panorama.” “The climax of 'Wir sind das Volk' are the scenes from that gigantic Leipzig Monday demonstration in which a 'Chinese solution 'was feared. Director Berger managed to create a number of goosebumps pictures. Anja Kling speaks of a 'well-told explosion story'. In addition to their prison scenes, the actions about the two amateur filmmakers [...] raise the historical look of the film about the heart-pain level of conventional event movies. The power of the highly emotional film culminates in the events of October 9th and 10th. […] The film also shows [the fall of the wall] authentically: the legendary travel regulation PK, the nerve-wracking minutes before the wall came down, the fear of panic and gunfire. Finally the victory of television [...] over the concerns of the concrete heads on the barrier. "
Awards
- 2009: German Television Award : Best Book for Silke Zertz
- 2009: German Television Award : Best Actress in the 'Television Film' category for Anja Kling
Image carrier
The DVD for the film was released on October 8, 2008, one day after the first broadcast of the second part.
Web links
- We are the people - love knows no boundaries in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Detailed presentation of the film on Sat1.de
- Pictures of the German premiere
Individual evidence
- ↑ We are the people - love knows no boundaries. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 22, 2017 .
- ↑ Rainer Tittelbach : View of the peaceful revolution: far above the historical heart-pain level, film review by tittelbach.tv, accessed on May 7, 2015.