Synopsis

Thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, three former political prisoners recall their moments of violation and humiliation in the clutches of state security in East Berlin and their experiences in the then Hohenschönhausen Interrogation Centre. This documentary offers an insight into their individual experiences of this period in and out of prison, from a historical and personal point of view. The stories of Edda Schönherz, a former TV news presenter, Hans-Joachim (Akki) Lietsche, a former window dresser, and Matthias Leupold, a fashion magazine driver at the time, will make you reflect not only about the past but also about the present.

Directors Statement

During the 40 years of the GDR's existence, around 200-250,000 people were imprisoned for political reasons.
It took me 37 years after my imprisonment 1982 before I was able to come to terms with what had happened to me in the State Security remand centre in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen in the winter of 1982.
And I met two other three innocent prisoners at this place: I was shocked by the harshness of their fate when Edda Schönherz told me for the first time, why she was imprisoned, what happened to her children and what everyday life was like in Hoheneck during the three years of her sentence. The life story of Hans-Joachim Lietsche, known as "Akki", who at the age of 20 organised an illegal counter-revolutionary group with four sixteen-year-old friends in East Berlin, who printed and secretly distributed leaflets. All of them were arrested and spent three quarters of a year or more in pre-trial detention or juvenile detention. Akki was the only one of his group to survive.
Abhiroop, Marcella and Berglind and I tried to get closer to these stories, including mine. How Hohenschönhausen was experienced by Edda, Akki and me, how the officers of the State Security actually put their strategy of psychological decomposition into practice during interrogations, can certainly be seen as representative of the treatment of many other prisoners on remand.

A collective project by Matthias Leupold, Marcela Faganello, 
Berglind Sóley Jansdóttir Elstermann, Abhiroop Banerjee

Interviews with Hans-Joachim Lietsche, Edda Schönherz, Matthias Leupold: Berglind Sóley Jansdóttir Elstermann

Cinematography: Abhiroop Banerjee
Sound: Marcela Faganello
Historical Consulting: Dr. Stefan Donth
Subtitles: Andra Kampfhenkel

Motion Design: Lasse Laupichler
Matthias Leupold: Producer