Michendorf2003

This charming German television documentary took me back to my visit to the rest stop "delicatessan" on the border of Burgenland, Austria and Hungary just outside(?) Sopron before the Iron Curtain separating Eastern and Western Europe fell. The director of this film captured the feel of the soon-to-be-possibly-redundant working class as the East opens up to international trade, travelers and money. Surprising (or not?) that Frau Muller still lives in fear of the Stasi, the former East Germany's secret police.

What this film does so well is to convey what larger political experiences mean to ordinary: film can capture this and convey, probably better than any other medium what big changes do at a local level. its important not to do this is a condescending way, but in a manner that conveys what such an experience is like. this film does that

Well done.

Very well done. It captures the unique experience of the workers, their unusual status "in between" the two German states, and it provides just enough context to make clear to those not versed in the history of divided Germany, that there were both pleasures and problems with that status.