![Filmstill Make or Break](/sites/default/files/styles/stepped_teaser_/public/fiona/films/stills/97eb4f45-a826-426b-92c1-c802f8ce403c.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=mIMj_UDO)
Make or Break
Because his single mother criticised the state, Alex was sent to a special children’s home at the age of eleven, in order to shape him – like almost 500,000 children in the GDR – into a “socialist personality”. He escaped and ended up as a punishment at the Torgau Closed Juvenile Detention Centre, more prison than social institution. His life was now dominated by military drill and violence … Reduced rotoscope images follow Alex’s memories and show how the trauma affects him even today.