Vaterland

Followed by a talk with Uli M Schueppel and Masha Matzke

Germany at the time of the Reunification. Every effort made by Kadir to build a life for himself in the country is thwarted or ends in disappointment. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, he is released from a compulsory stay in a psychiatric hospital in the GDR. The people around him are hostile; his wife wants a divorce and is seeking to deny him access to their son. In his desperation, Kadir sees taking a dangerous risk as the only way out: he kidnaps his son and flees with him towards Algeria. The protagonist, who director Uli M Schueppel sees as “both victim and perpetrator”, is more of a drifter than a man with a destination as he travels through a Germany which is also lost in the throes of upheaval – and which is captured in haunting visual poetry. At the time of production, this perspective proved to be a bold gamble and one that Schueppel was obliged to fiercely defend.

Uli M Schueppel studied film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Working as a writer, director and producer, and occasionally as a cinematographer, he has collaborated on 15 feature-length films, including fiction, essay and documentary films, as well as numerous shorts, music videos and animations.

Masha Matzke is a Berlin-based film restorer, researcher and curator specializing in early and experimental cinema.