Ostkreuz

Fri 17.07.
20:00

Director
Michael Klier
Germany / 1991
83 min. / DCP / Original version with English subtitles
with
Laura Tonke, Miroslaw Baka, Suzanne von Borsody
Original language
German
Cinema
Arsenal
zu dem Kalender
Followed by a conversation with Laura Tonke, moderated by Birgit Kohler

Fifteen-year-old Elfie (Laura Tonke) has a plan she’s determined to carry out: she wants to leave the bleak container village for refugees from the former East Germany where she is living with her unemployed mother in the newly reunified Berlin. To raise money for a flat, Elfie starts working with a Polish man carrying out petty crimes. Shots of bleak wastelands, the sounds of musician Fred Frith and close-ups of Laura Tonke’s face in her first role characterize the film’s chilly atmosphere. Elfie is introverted and never laughs – but smiles every time she meets the boy left behind by his parents in East Berlin. (bik)