Film Archive

Jahr

Land (Film Archive)

DEFA Matinee 2021
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In Transit: Report for Posterity
Kurt Tetzlaff
Between March 1989 and March 1990, Kurt Tetzlaff follows the critical Potsdam high school graduate and pastor’s son Alexander Schulz through a time of personal and political upheaval.
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In Transit: Report for Posterity

Im Durchgang – Protokoll für das Gedächtnis
Kurt Tetzlaff
DEFA Matinee 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1990
90 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Whoever has discovered a truth must also bear witness to it and make it known,” says the critical Potsdam high school graduate and pastor’s son Alexander Schulz at the start of the film and adds: “You must also endure the personal disadvantages.” Between March 1989 and March 1990, Kurt Tetzlaff follows the intelligent boy through a time of upheaval. At their graduation, Alexander and his class perform the play “Dictatorship of Conscience” by Mikhail Shatrov. He takes part in the demonstrations in autumn 1989 and refuses to serve in the army. Sequences from the GDR news demonstrate how far removed from the citizens the state leadership had become.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kurt Tetzlaff
Script
Kurt Tetzlaff, Hans-Dieter Rutsch
Cinematographer
Werner Bergmann, Jürgen Voigt, Achim Sommer
Editor
Monika Schäfer
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Rainer Pape, Lutz Laschet, Ernst-Dieter Falkenthal, Hartmut Haase
DEFA Matinee 2021
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In Transition: Report on a Hope
Kurt Tetzlaff
A reencounter with Alexander, Tetzlaff’s protagonist of “In Transit”. The mood of departure of the autumn of 1989 gives way to disappointment and resignation only a short time later.
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In Transition: Report on a Hope

Im Übergang – Protokoll einer Hoffnung
Kurt Tetzlaff
DEFA Matinee 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
1991
82 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Once again Kurt Tetzlaff portrays Alexander, who in 1990 works as a nurse and is active in the “Action Reconciliation”. The sense of departure of the autumn of 1989 slowly gives way to disappointments about the outcome of the People’s Chamber elections in 1990, the currency reform and the Unification Treaty. The political and social changes took place at a rapid pace that many found hard to follow. The sense of community that carried people through 1989 is fading. “Now it’s every man for himself”, Alexander states. He has no use for capitalism: “I feel just as lied to and cheated as before.” Resignation spreads.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kurt Tetzlaff
Script
Kurt Tetzlaff, Eckard Mieder
Cinematographer
Ingo Bahr, Jürgen Partzsch, Claus Mühle, Karl Faber, Hans Borrmann, Andreas Bergmann
Editor
Monika Schäfer
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Dietmar Falkenthal, Hartmut Haase, Lutz Laschet, Rainer Pape