Wittstock, Wittstock

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Movie
Original title Wittstock, Wittstock
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1997
length 117 minutes
Rod
Director Volker Koepp
script Volker Koepp
production Kruschke film and television production in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Ostdeutschem Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) and the Sender Freies Berlin (SFB)
camera Christian Lehmann
cut Angelika Arnold
chronology

←  Predecessor
News in Wittstock

Wittstock, Wittstock is the last documentary from the Wittstock cycle by Volker Koepp .

action

Also the last part of Wittstock cycle follows the life of Edith, Elsbeth and Renate, the three women from the former state-owned Upper jersey recite operation (OTB) in Wittstock . The development of the OTB and the girls and women associated with the work are told, including flashbacks from the footage of the previous parts. The years 1974 to 1991 pass the audience once again, showing the structure and the decline of the OTB that began after the fall of the Wall in 1990 and the associated changes in the lives of women workers.

The film is dedicated to Edith, Elsbeth and Renate and starts with a shot that shows them standing next to each other in front of the city wall of Wittstock.

In 1993 the OTB in Wittstock ceased to exist. All workers are laid off, the machines are auctioned and the large halls are empty. Elsbeth has a marginally paid job as a service worker in a department store. Renate, head of department for 120 workers at OTB and head of department for 450 workers, now works as a carpenter in the Hotel Stadt Hamburg . Unemployment and the problems associated with it are a central theme in many of the discussions that were held.

In 1996 Elsbeth did an internship in a drugstore to qualify as a saleswoman. After completing the internship, unemployment and further qualifications follow, an often endless cycle in which many of the women from the former OTB now find themselves.

“ And how many of them have a new job now? No. No prospect. Nothing. We're sitting here to get some money ... But we're back a year. What next? Where we got some money and a year where we didn't sit at home. "

- Answer of the women from the course on retraining as a specialist saleswoman in conversation with Volker Koepp

The film team visits Edith in Neuenstadt am Kocher . She and her husband are shown at their new job and a long conversation follows with the two of them about the meaning of home and the meaning of life.

Renate gets a visit from her twin sister Karin from Zwickau . The two tell of their lives from the time they were born in Breslau , where the family lived until they were 4 years old.

Scenes at the end of the film focus on the children of Elsbeth and Renate. A tour with Renate and Elsbeth in the empty halls of the OTB, where the lights go out, and a last flashback with Elsbeth conclude the film.

Production and publication

The film was produced by Kruschke Film- und Fernsehproduktion in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) and Sender Free Berlin (SFB) between 1996 and 1997 and on February 21, 1997 premiered at the Forum of the Berlin International Film Festival.

criticism

“With 'Wittstock, Wittstock', Volker Koepp ends his filmic observations, which have spanned more than 20 years, of life in the small town of Wittstock an der Dosse in the Brandenburg region and of how it changed in the new Federal Republic of Germany. Once again you meet the textile workers of the former VEB upper tricot company 'Ernst Lück', who have lost work and social recognition, but not their self-esteem and their security. A contemplative, touchingly poetic documentary film that captures résumés in the balance without any hint of resignation. "

- filmdienst.de

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ IFF program 1997 . www.berlinale-de.
  2. ^ Wittstock, Wittstock . filmdienst.de. Retrieved December 8, 2019.