Die Familie

Families of people murdered along the border of East and West Berlin tell their stories. „A two-year suspended sentence. For firing the fatal shot. Imagine that." With those words, we get caught by one of the protagonists - a mother of Irmgard B. who was shot in 1986. In an oppressive, authoritarian state, the bereaved are also the victims. Even now, more than a quarter of a century on, they still suffer the trauma of their loss. One woman protagonist doesn't know what happened to her son's corpse; another still doesn't know how and why her husband drowned at the former border. The third protagonist discovers photographs in a Stasi case file and is confronted for the first time with images of the dead body of his father. The harrowing effect of the film unfolds as witness evidence is corroborated on various different levels. The statements of those affected often present a stark contrast to the parallel entries in the Stasi files, formulated in a cold, bureaucratic German that is even more unbearable than usual in this context. (Jeden svet)