Cinematic interpretation of Germany’s division
Director Christoph Schlingensief.
German filmmaker Christoph Schlingensief’s ‘The German Chainsaw Massacre’: will be screened at the Goethe Hall as part of the film series “Film Macht Geschichte”, the Wall that Divided Germany, which are being screened from March 22 to May 3. The film will be screened at 7 pm on April 26.
October 1990: The German people celebrate the reunification of Germany in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker speaks of unity and freedom. A young woman kills her husband with a huge knife and flees. Her car, a “Trabant”, indicates Clara is an “Ossi”, an East German. She passes the last remaining border troops and arrives in the West. A family of butchers has been waiting for someone just like her. Alfred and his gang benefit from the opening of the borders in their very own way: they butcher and slaughter their brothers and sisters from the East, preferably with a chainsaw, and turn them into sausage. Christoph Schlingensief, the great provocateur, provides a disturbing and very bloody answer to a number of questions surrounding German reunification.
The selected films in the series of “Film Macht Geschichte” focus on the topic of failed states, the “failed states”. The term originated in the early 90s and referred directly to the changes and upheavals in the former “Eastern Bloc.” Within the film series, the breakdown of the GDR is described in particular.
