Brüder und Schwestern

East German television had selected them through “production assistants” as “model citizens” loyal to the party line. Just one year later, the Berlin Wall fell, and Schnabel filmed again with the same protagonists. The film uses both old and (at the time) new footage and, through a pointed parallel montage, creates an outstanding historical document set between economic upswing and powerlessness.

Filmmaker Pavel Schnabel was born in 1946 in Olomouc (Czechoslovakia); he left his homeland for West Germany during the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, while still a student at the Prague Film and Television Academy (FAMU). As a freelance cinematographer and director, he has received numerous festival awards for his work, including the Federal Film Prize and the Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold.