Film Archive

Sections (Film Archive)

Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Ablinga
Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
A Lithuanian village destroyed by the Wehrmacht is reborn as a forest of sculptures. This film poem commemorates the murdered ones and calls for peace.
Filmstill Ablinga

Ablinga

Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1977
13 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Nothing is left of the Lithuanian village of Ablinga. Destroyed by Wehrmacht soldiers in 1941, a forest of sculptures was erected in 1972 to commemorate those who once lived here. Larger than life, the carved wooden monuments rise to the sky. In national poet Justinas Marcinkevičius’s poem they wake up again, share some last secrets and become connecting links on a timeline that knows violence and dreams of peace. Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s montage is bold, playful and sometimes brutal, her concern credible and strong. Within a few minutes, “Ablinga” puts a spell on us, becoming a monument to German guilt and the memory of the murdered ones.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Script
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Cinematographer
Leonid Krainenkow
Editor
Werner Wendt
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound Design
Peter Gotthardt
Retrospective 2021
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Operation J
Walter Heynowski
A polemical biographical research of Adenauer’s Chief of Staff of the Chancellery Globke: Nazi administrative lawyer, Eichmann confidant, accomplice to the racist declassification of Jews.
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Operation J

Aktion J
Walter Heynowski
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1961
103 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Heynowski’s biographical research in the guise of an exposé film was part of a campaign coordinated by SED functionary Albert Norden to unmask the FRG as a fascist state. Documents and commentaries trace the career of Adenauer’s Chief of Staff of the Chancellery, Hans Globke, who had collaborated in the systematic marking and racist declassification of Jews as a Nazi administrative lawyer and Eichmann confidant. The facts had been on the table for some time, but acquired new propaganda value in view of the impending Eichmann trial. In 1961, “Operation J” was awarded a main prize at the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film Week.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Walter Heynowski
Script
Walter Heynowski
Cinematographer
Rolf Sperling
Editor
Bert Schultz
Producer
Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF)
Retrospective 2021
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Respite
Harun Farocki
Material from the Nazi Jewish transit camp Westerbork. Every road from here lead to death, including for the cameraman. Farocki analyzes the silent sequences: surgery on the narrative.
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Respite

Aufschub
Harun Farocki
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
Germany,
South Korea
2007
40 minutes
German captions
Subtitles: 
None

Anyone interned in the Nazi Jewish transit and collection camp Westerbork in the occupied Netherlands faced death: The trains left to Auschwitz from here, to Sobibór. In 1944, the camp commander ordered the prisoner and cameraman Rudolf Breslauer, who was murdered shortly afterwards, to film the camp, presumably as visual evidence of his own “work performance”. Harun Farocki, West German doyen of essayistic image criticism, used the surviving silent material to compose an equally silent sequence analysis commented only in title cards. It is surgery on the hidden narrative, not open heart surgery.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Harun Farocki
Script
Harun Farocki
Cinematographer
Rudolf Breslauer
Editor
Lars Pienkoß, Harun Farocki
Producer
Harun Farocki
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Uprisings in the Soviet Sphere of Influence
Uprisings in the Soviet Sphere of Influence
Ralph Giordano, Hans-Ulrich Barth
Communism as a history of crises: The authors examine the various uprisings in the Soviet sphere of influence and search for similarities and differences.
Filmstill Uprisings in the Soviet Sphere of Influence

Uprisings in the Soviet Sphere of Influence

Aufstände im sowjetischen Machtbereich
Ralph Giordano, Hans-Ulrich Barth
Retrospective 2023
Documentary Film
FRG
1961
24 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The history of communism as the story of its crises: The two authors Ralph Giordano and Hans-Ulrich Barth take up various uprisings and protests to demonstrate the discrepancy between the claim to power and the reality in “socialist imperialism.” A more nuanced light is shed on individual uprisings, while at the same time feeding into stereotypical Cold War images of the enemy.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ralph Giordano, Hans-Ulrich Barth
Producer
NDR Norddeutscher Rundfunk / German TV ARD Network
Retrospective 2021
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Berlin-Totale XIV. 2. d) Almstadtstraße
Karl-Heinz Wegner
A production of the State Film Documentation, which was set up to preserve uncensored GDR reality: Long-term residents look back on the German-Jewish history of “their” street.
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Berlin-Totale XIV. 2. d) Almstadtstraße

Berlin-Totale XIV. 2. d) Almstadtstraße
Karl-Heinz Wegner
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1979
35 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Why this film document about a street in East Berlin is the way it is, why it conveys an almost touching, basically unformed honesty and perplexity, is due to the specific institution it was made for. The State Film Documentation was founded to provide the GDR with uncensored testimonies of its own reality. Three long-time residents look, through notoriously draughty windows, at the notoriously chilly German-Jewish history: Herr Miegel, former pub owner, Frau Kramp, former cinema employee, Mischket Liebermann, writer and GDR cultural politician. They have been neighbours in their district forever. They will probably remain strangers to each other forever.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Karl-Heinz Wegner
Cinematographer
Roland Worel, Dieter Schönberg
Sound
Dieter Harms
Commissioning Editor
Veronika Otten
Retrospective 2021
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Educational Attainment of West German Pupils in the 1950s
Jürgen Neven du Mont
Hitler sold badges to come to power? And really six million murdered Jews? A knowledge test among FRG secondary school pupils where it’s actually the parents that fail.
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Educational Attainment of West German Pupils in the 1950s

Bildungsstand westdeutscher Schüler in den 50er Jahren
Jürgen Neven du Mont
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
FRG
1959
44 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

On 29 April 1959, Hessian Broadcasting transmitted an alarming survey of the Federal German school system. The first of three parts of the report “Focus on Our Youth” investigates the question of what has stuck in the minds of higher form students about Hitler’s and Ulbricht’s Germanies. Hesse under Polish administration? Hitler sold badges to come to power? At least they are about right concerning the number of murdered Jews – that is, the third who could think of anything to say about this at all. One television critic rightly pointed out that this represented the sum total of all parental table talk. But were these parents watching television on 29 April 1959?

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jürgen Neven du Mont
Cinematographer
Willy Sedler, Bernhard Weber, Günter Seuss
Editor
Hilde Grabow
Producer
HR Hessischer Rundfunk
Sound
Horst Eiteljörge
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Birth of Solidarity
Birth of Solidarity
Bohdan Kosiński
The authorities decide on the future of Solidarność, the masses protest in the streets. A general strike is in the air. For a moment, political change seems possible.
Filmstill Birth of Solidarity

Birth of Solidarity

Narodziny Solidarności
Bohdan Kosiński
Retrospective 2023
Documentary Film
Poland
1981
29 minutes
Polish
Subtitles: 
English

While the communist authorities decide the conditions for an official registration of the Solidarność movement inside, the masses demonstrate in front of the court outside. A contemporary document of the moment when the power of the people seemed to make a lasting cultural opening no longer just a promise but a possibility. At the time, “undesirable” at the Leipzig festival.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Bohdan Kosiński
Script
Bohdan Kosiński
Cinematographer
Michał Bukojemski
Editor
Lidia Zonn
Producer
Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych
Sound
Małgorzata Rok, Jan Kalisz
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Black Days
Black Days
Ladislav Kudelka, Milan Černák, Ctibor Kováč, Štefan Kamenický
The invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968 from a Slovak perspective. Politicians and the population search for an appropriate attitude between caution and determination.
Filmstill Black Days

Black Days

Čierne dni
Ladislav Kudelka, Milan Černák, Ctibor Kováč, Štefan Kamenický
Retrospective 2023
Documentary Film
Czechoslovakia
1968
30 minutes
Slovak
Subtitles: 
English

“Stay calm and level-headed!” Endless armoured convoys, radio stations broadcasting their potentially last announcements and the Slovak Communist Party meeting Czech party representatives. Shaky images and wailing sirens testify to the tension as Warsaw Pact troops march into Bratislava, too, to suppress the Prague Spring.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ladislav Kudelka, Milan Černák, Ctibor Kováč, Štefan Kamenický
Cinematographer
Vladimír Holloš, Leopold Bródy, Pavel Čilek, Oskar Šághy, Mikuláš Fodor, Rudolf Ferko
Editor
Juraj Lexmann, Anna Forischová
Producer
Československý film Bratislava
Sound
Jozef Kováčik, Jaroslav Kopernický, Alexander Pallós, Ján Fabián
Retrospective 2021
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Buchenwald
Günter Weschke
The Buchenwald Memorial was the first national memorial of the GDR. From 1961 to 1975, every memorial tour began with this introductory film, in which the Jewish victims are barely mentioned.
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Buchenwald

Buchenwald
Günter Weschke
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1961
26 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The inauguration of the “National Buchenwald Memorial”, the first national memorial of the GDR, took place in 1958. The monumental site was also meant to demonstrate the state-supporting importance of a selective culture of remembrance, commemorating the communist resistance fighters – and omitting the fact that the graves were mainly filled with Jewish victims. In 1961, DEFA completed this “introductory film”, commissioned by the Buchenwald committee, which talks about Goethe, Schiller, Thälmann, but only very marginally about Jews. Every visitor’s memorial tour started with this until 1975. Its scriptwriter and production manager was the playwright Heiner Müller, a fact that was not known until 2004.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Günter Weschke
Script
Günter Weschke, Heiner Müller
Cinematographer
Günter Weschke
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Heinz Reusch, Kurt Wolfram
Narrator
Sergio Günther, Ekkehard Schall, Wolfgang Heinz
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Confusion
Confusion
Evald Schorm
Secretly filmed footage of the suppression of the Prague Spring: hidden in archives for decades and screened 22 years later to the beat of Tchaikovsky.
Filmstill Confusion

Confusion

Zmatek
Evald Schorm
Retrospective 2023
Documentary Film
Czechoslovakia
1969
36 minutes
Czech
Subtitles: 
English

No images of value but “confused material.” For decades, footage secretly filmed in August 1968 in Prague was hidden in archives under this label. Evald Schorm recovered the illegal material and composed it to the beat of Tchaikovsky recordings, in keeping with its expressive nature. The film could finally be publicly shown in 1990.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Evald Schorm
Cinematographer
Stanislav Milota, Jaromír Kallista, Jiří Macák, Ivan Vojnár, Jozef Ort-Šne, Jozef Ort-Šnep
Editor
Vlasta Styblíková
Producer
Krátký Film Praha
Retrospective 2021
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The Empty House
Miriam Pfeiffer
After reunification the Israelite Religious Community Leipzig grows – and needs room. But their new residence remains empty for the time being: neighbouring land owners sue.
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The Empty House

Das leere Haus
Miriam Pfeiffer
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2004
30 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

After reunification, immigration made the Israelite Religious Community of Leipzig grow to considerable size, too big for its old rooms. The Ariowitsch House, built in the 1920s as an Israelite old people’s home, is to become the home of a generously dimensioned cultural and community centre – and at the same time commemorate the residents of the home who were deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. But the start of the development is delayed: neighbouring land owners file a lawsuit. Miriam Pfeiffer intervenes in the ongoing public debate, asking citizens of the city about their suspicions concerning reasons of the refusal that the competent court may not be aware of.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Miriam Pfeiffer
Cinematographer
Miriam Pfeiffer, Alexandra Czok
Editor
Maurice Hünsni
Producer
Schulmuseum Leipzig
Sound
Anja Hempel, Gert Blumhagen
Score
Chor der Israelitischen Religionsgemeinschaft zu Leipzig
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Deadlock
Deadlock
Ferenc Rófusz
“It’s all over.” The worst possible fate for opponents of the regime, underlaid by a reference to “The Unkown Soldier” by The Doors. Radically simple and maximally impressive.
Filmstill Deadlock

Deadlock

Holtpont
Ferenc Rófusz
Retrospective 2023
Animated Film
Hungary
1982
4 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

An execution illustrated from the point of view of the condemned man, with a musical reference to the song “The Unknown Soldier” by The Doors. Ferenc Rófusz’s film may not have been a direct statement about the roughly 200 death sentences issued against all manner of opponents of the regime in Hungary after the uprising, but its poignancy speaks for itself.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ferenc Rófusz
Cinematographer
Zoltán Bacsó, József Gujdár
Editor
Kaim Katalin
Producer
Olga Auguszt
Sound
Zsebényi Béla
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill 17 June in Saarland
17 June in Saarland
Sven Trittelvitz
When exactly did the GDR uprising happen? And the building of the Wall? A television report about a “holiday” in the Saarland whose cause hardly anyone remembers.
Filmstill 17 June in Saarland

17 June in Saarland

Der 17. Juni im Saarland
Sven Trittelvitz
Retrospective 2023
Documentary Film
FRG
1964
9 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

One of many commemoration ceremonies, eleven years after the GDR uprising. The report combines a Saarland politician’s thoughtful speech with idyllic shots of a high-spirited population: at open air swimming pools, playing cards or on camping sites. “Do you know what we commemorate today?” the reporter asks. The answers are deeply irritating.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sven Trittelvitz
Producer
Saarländischer Rundfunk
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill The First Birthday
The First Birthday
Gabriele Hochneder
Silvia, single mother, celebrates her daughter’s first birthday. A matter-of-fact and occasionally sobering portrait that revolves around a sanguine woman.
Filmstill The First Birthday

The First Birthday

Der erste Geburtstag
Gabriele Hochneder
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
17 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Silvia Szuprizinski has lived alone with her little daughter for a year now: time to take stock. The young woman talks, her stories commented by Gabriele Hochneder’s pictures of everyday life that tell of efforts. Silvia, leaning against the tiled stove, talks about the failed relationship with the child’s father with detachment, but also with a certain degree of regret. At least her own family are present, all of them at the door in time for the first birthday. Still, Silvia spends her nights alone with herself – and the television. The fact that Hochneder’s film, despite the adversities, does not become a lament is at least partly owing to its sanguine main protagonist.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gabriele Hochneder
Cinematographer
Jürgen Lubosch
Editor
Ilona Thiel
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Retrospective 2021
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The Road We Don’t Walk Together
Dominik Graf
Dominik Graf contributed a reflection on West German post-1945 urban architecture to the anthology film “Germany 09”: improvisations decoratively arranged after 1990.
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The Road We Don’t Walk Together

Der Weg, den wir nicht zusammen gehen
Dominik Graf
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2009
13 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The project “Germany 09” brought the upper league of German auteur filmmakers together to take stock of the Berlin Republic in individual film contributions. Dominik Graf contributed to this collage of the German image a reflection about post-1945 urban architecture shot on old Super8 stock: provisional, slipshod ensembles of pretty-ugly public buildings, fenced-in urban wasteland, draughty storefronts and uninhabited housing blocks in Munich, Duisburg, Frankfurt am Main, West Berlin, all of them testimonies to an unplanned through traffic for social and migrant milieus. A thorn in the side of the reunited mania for cleaning up, renovating and decorating.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dominik Graf
Script
Dominik Graf
Cinematographer
Martin Gressmann
Editor
Katja Dringenberg
Producer
Dirk Wilutzky, Tom Tykwer
Sound
Andreas Mücke-Niesytka
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Dialogue
Dialogue
Róża Berger-Fiedler
A young officer opens the doors to the National People’s Army and to his close family. While his life is full of variety, others must play second fiddle.
Filmstill Dialogue

Dialogue

Dialog
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
27 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Won’t make it today, hope you don’t mind.” A casual call, the husband will be late again, not to be expected before eight. He is an officer in the National People’s Army, still young, but with a lot of postings under his belt, always accompanied by his wife. She has resigned herself to her fate, while he flourishes enviably in his profession. Róża Berger-Fiedler spends most of the time by his side, following him in brisk cuts from appointment to appointment. Talking is required and demanded constantly: to representatives of the Soviet armed forces, young recruits, subordinates. Words come easy to him, but not everything runs smoothly.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Script
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Cinematographer
Hans-Eberhard Leupold
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Score
Peter Gotthardt