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Die vergessene Armee

After the end of the GDR, a quarter of a million soldiers as well as Stasi and police officers didn’t just lose their jobs, they lost their value system. Signe Astrup’s documentary examines how the former executive powers of the party have dealt ...

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When the GDR officially ceased to exist in October 1990, only a small part of the state’s security agencies were taken over by an all-German service. The quarter of a million former soldiers as well as Stasi and police officers were suddenly made redundant as their enemy was no longer at the gate. Being a soldier was more than a job to them. The collapse of their life’s work and their identification with the lost homeland confronted many with the existential question of the meaning of their own history.

Signe Astrup’s documentary questions how the former executive powers of the party have dealt with this loss of meaning. A parallel society is shown here, one whose oath of allegiance didn’t stop after the reunification and includes traditional unions, paramilitary sports, and public acts of grief in full uniform. The film shows a wide spectrum of stories, from the privileged wife of an officer who would like to have the GDR back despite “all of its quirks,” to the former policeman who finds out how little the country he loved trusted him when he reads his Stasi file. The film never tries to aggressively destroy world views. Astrup is friendly and careful with her interviewees and lets them question themselves and arrive at unexpected realizations, if they wish to do so. Matija Strnisa’s almost abstract music beautifully accentuates the very personal stories.

Christian Klose

Translation: Elinor Lewy

Credits

Deutschland, Dänemark 2017, 89 min
Genre: Documentary
Director: Signe Astrup
Author: Signe Astrup
DOP: Frank Schwaiger
Montage: Ruth Schönegge
Music: Matija Strnisa
Distributor: Edition Salzgeber
FSK: 6
Release: 08.06.2017

Website
IMDB

Screenings

  • OV Original version
  • OmU Original with German subtitles
  • OmeU Original with English subtitles

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