THE FOREIGN

In the historical situation of the post-reunification period in East Germany, Das Fremde reflects different the experiences of migration, return and foreignness in one’s own country.

Mr. Mujemba, with a doctrate in economics from Zaire, visits schools in Brandenburg in order to reduce children’s prejudices. The Wentzel brothers settle down in Teutschenthal near Halle an der Saale and restore their former family property. A real estate agent from Sauerland wants to buy land to build holiday apartments for West German investors. Mr. von Maltzan, chemist from Berlin, tries to make a new agricultural enterprise from the run-down LPG (former East German agricultural association) on the land of his ancestors. At the German-Polish border, Federal Border Guard officers move into provisional blockhouse settlements. The young Count Solms prepares for the migration of his father from Namibia to the Baruther castle. In a Greifswald adult school, a Turkish teacher from Hamburg trains unemployed engineers. Young people in the peripheral area of the former border between East and West Germany complain about the conditions, but can not imagine leaving from home. Repeatedly appearing throughout the film are the reflections of physician Gabriela Willbold, a daughter of a black father and a white mother. Born in Cottbus in 1961,  she recalls her life with a different skin color in the GDR and in reunited Germany.

Hans-Georg Ullrich, (born in 1942 in Magdeburg) completed a college education as a photographer. He shot a series of award-winning industrial films. Ullrich has been working with Detlef Gumm since the 1970s. Their first joint success in 1973 was the documentary series Everyday Life - Pictures of the Road.

Detlef Gumm (born in 1947 in Ludwigshafen) came to Berlin after an internship in the recording studio of BASF. He studied journalism, drama and art history during the student movement. In 1975 he founded together with Hans-Georg Ullrich the production company kangaroo film.