While the GDR is drawing its dying breaths and German reunification is imminent, “The GDR Children of Namibia” are forced to return to Africa at extremely short notice. The film highlights the emotional state of the children and adolescents just before their departure from the GDR and after their arrival in Windhoek. Conversations make their inner conflict palpable: they are looking forward to a possible reunion with their family, but they also leave friends and their home of the past years behind. Can one’s own country become a foreign place?

Philip Zengel