Directed by:
Franziska StünkelScreenplay:
Franziska StünkelCinematography:
Nikolai von GraevenitzComposer:
Karim Sebastian EliasCast:
Lars Eidinger, Moritz Jahn, Luise Heyer, Peter Benedict, Devid Striesow, Hendrik Heutmann, Daniel Thomas, Stefan Woelk, Inka Löwendorf, Florian Anderer (more)Plots(1)
East Berlin, 1981. The ambitious scientist Franz Walter doesn't hesitate when he is promised a professorship at the university. He immediately accepts, pledges absolute loyalty to the system and agrees to work for the GDR's foreign intelligence service until he can take up his new position. Together with his colleague Dirk, he is sent on foreign assignments to West Germany. Franz soon has to use blackmail to get innocent people to talk. But his superiors go even further: GDR refugees and their relatives are targeted to be psychologically destroyed, forged letters, medical diagnoses, surveillance and wiretapping are on the agenda. However, this is more than Franz can bear... This gripping historical drama is inspired by the life and death of Werner Teske, the last prisoner executed in the former GDR. (Cinemax)
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Reviews (1)
Though it seems mundane at first, this film is actually a two-hour psychological breakdown of an intelligent man — a doctor — pushed to his limits by the regime. It's brutal and uncompromising from a psychological standpoint. That era must have been horrendous, and I can't understand how anyone could look back on it fondly. Today’s youth would probably crumble under the first bit of pressure from above. If they didn't, they'd likely just spill everything, thinking they have the right to do so.
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