Ostwärts

This documentary, produced at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb), focuses on the area around Biesenthal, located north of Berlin on highway 2, at the end of 1990. Calm, observational images are accompanied by interviews with three different people who report on their plans and endeavours to make a new economic start. A young woman from West Germany wants to practice face painting in Biesenthal in the belief that people are more open to new things in the former GDR. Her business partner explains his plan of combining a hairdresser, beautician, fashion studio, gallery cafe and computer courses in the buildings of a former holiday camp. A middle aged man and father, laid off after 18 years working for a state owned company now taken over by a West German firm, hopes to earn a tolerable living by building his own take-away. Petzold unpretentiously shows the consequences of the Wende and the changes since the fall of the Wall.