Feindberührung / Enemy Engagement (2010) [Stasi documentary]

Feindberührung / Enemy Engagement (2010)
Director: Heike Bachelier

In German with optional English subtitles

Prix Europa 2011: Best Documentary Feature Film | FILMZ, Festival des deutschen Kinos, Mainz 2010: Best Documentary

Trailer | IMDB

A documentary thriller from the days of the cold war. Two ex-friends from the now defunct East Germany meet up after many years. One was once a dissident, the other spied on him for the Stasi. One went to prison and one did not. A gripping, unsettling story told through two ordinary people, of how a dictatorship like the GDR could spin so effective a web and control its population so completely.

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East Germany 30 years ago, a student asks too many questions, is expelled and ordered to do manual work in a factory. Looking for an intellectual outlet the young man becomes a member of the Protestant Student’s Group (PSG) and airs his opinions. Meanwhile another young man, believing in a socialist society, joins the group to try to educate critical members in the error of their ways. The Stasi recruit this young man as a voluntary operative, codename “Hans Kramer“. When he reports about this one very critical young man, the Stasi order him to befriend this “enemy“ - with life shattering consequences.

The secret Stasi files of this incident and the emotional meeting of both men today unravel a multilayered story of friendship and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness. An era comes alive, a time when the Stasi could wrap their tentacles around every aspect of society and manipulate emotions and feelings to maintain control over the GDR.

A gripping documentary thriller.

1h 31m
DVDrip: 720x576, 25 fps
Audio untouched from DVD
Includes chapters from DVD
x264 in MKV

Keywords: Stasi, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS, Ministry for State Security, counterintelligence, secret police, police state, surveillance, cointelpro, inoffizieller mitarbeiter, unofficial collaborator, documentary