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THE BURNING WALL Send This Review to a Friend
There is so much to learn in Hava Kohav Beller's elaborately researched new documentary about the former Communist-controlled East Germany. The filmmaker takes us into the world of heroism and brutality, a legacy that still haunts the Germany of today in the wake of the wall being torn down and the country's unification. We need to know more about what really went on and what it meant for the people living through the heyday of the German Democratic Republic, the GDR. Beller takes us there vividly, amassing clips, interviews and documentation.
She examines the period between 1949 and 1989, and focuses in part on the Stasi, the secret police that kept tabs on the populace with a force that had some 100,000 agents. Revelations from the files have proved embarrassing to many, and Beller diligently seeks out those who were part of the system and those who resisted. The toll in human terms was high; it is the old story of how people are made to be subservient and carry out horrendous policies of repression, and how some are forced to come to grips with their consciences.
Beller knows that you have to provide a good narrative to give a film dramatic focus. She did that with a previous documentary made a decade ago, "The Restless Conscience," which dealt with resistance to the Nazis. That film was an Oscar nominee. The director, who was born in Germany, grew up in Israel and now lives in New York, was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
By turning her attention to what was the East German regime, she digs into territory heretofore unexplored in such depth on film. There is a historical sweep to her nearly two-hour work, but at the same time we are dramatically brought close-up to the individuals whose lives were affected. Seeing it is like taking a history course, and yet Beller makes it history that comes alive, as when she includes comments by Gunter Grass, Vaclav Havel and others.
Ever present is an underlying question for a viewer. What would one do in similar circumstances? Have the courage to resist? Or go with the flow and do things of which one might later be ashamed? While America is no East Germany, the subject is nevertheless pertinent in the context of the controversial secret security measures being instituted in the United States in fight against terrorism. Beller is providing an important and timely service with "The Burning Wall," which the Film Forum is premiering Nov. 20-December 3, 2002. It merits wide distribution in the United States and elsewhere.
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