Die Familie (2014)

• 43%
• 2014
• Documentary
• Stefan Weinert

"A two-year suspended sentence for firing the fatal shot. Imagine that." A compelling introduction in today's Berlin to protagonist Irmgard B. mother of a son shot dead in 1986. In an oppressive, authoritarian state, the bereaved are also the victims. Even now, more than a quarter of a century on, they still suffer the trauma of their loss. One woman protagonist doesn't know what happened to her son's corpse; another still doesn't know how and why her husband drowned at the former border; a third discovers photographs in a Stasi case file and is confronted for the first time with images of the dead body of his father. The harrowing effect of the film unfolds as witness evidence is corroborated on various different levels. The statements of those affected often present a stark contrast to the parallel entries in the Stasi files, formulated in a cold, bureaucratic German that is even more unbearable than usual in this context. The lawyer Mr. Jahntz explains why legal action against the border marksmen produced such unsatisfactory results broadens the horizon of the film, but the protagonists and their trauma remain its central focus. The film's climax arrives in the form of a meeting between a marksman and the son of his victim.