Staßfurt, GDR, 1990. For years, hundreds of children from Namibia have grown up in the “School of Friendship” and its attached boarding school – far from their families. Integration into the life of the small town was never intended by the GDR leadership. When the political system collapses with the fall of the Berlin wall, the adolescents get caught in the crossfire of politics and the media. The film follows them through their everyday life and gives them a voice.

Philip Zengel

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