Wendezeit (2019)

Wendezeit is a spy thriller which premiered on German television (ARD) in 2019. The main character is a double agent who works for the US Embassy in West Berlin, while her real employer is the East German secret police, which is known as the Stasi.

The main story is set in Berlin in 1989 and 1990; shortly before and shortly after 9 November 1989 (the day when the Berlin Wall came down). There are also some flashbacks to the 1970s when Saskia was a young women; to the time before she became a double agent.

Here is some basic information about this movie:

** Director: Sven Bohse

** Idea: Michael Dreher

** Writer: Silke Steiner

** Language: most of the dialogue is in German (but occasionally it is in English) – there are no English subtitles!

** Run time: 119 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Petra Schmidt-Schaller as Saskia Starke (mother) (double agent)

** Harald Schrott as Richard Starke (father)

** Lilly Barshy as Hanna Starke (daughter)

** Niklas Schlenger as Simon Starke (son)

** Ulrich Thomsen as Jeremy Redman (US Embassy)

** Nina Rausch as Betsy Jordan (US Embassy)

** Robert Hunger-Bühler as Markus Wolf (1923-2006) (Stasi)

The German title is Wendezeit. What does it mean? “Die Wende” is the German word for “change” or “transformation.” In German, this word is used to talk about the change which took place from 1989 to 1990. The transformation of Germany from the time when there were two German states to the time when they were united.

Wendezeit means “A Time of Transformation.”

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore I am not going to say too much about what happens in this spy thriller. I will merely offer some basic information, so you understand how it begins.

Saskia Starke is a double agent. She works for the US, actually the CIA, in West Berlin. Her task is to gather information about the opposition in East Germany. But her real employer is the East German secret police, which is known as the Stasi. Her real task is to spy on the Americans.

She was sent into the western world many years ago. In order to give her character more credibility, she has married a western man (Richard) and together they have two children (Hanna and Simon). She is not only a double agent. She is also a wife and a mother, but these details were merely added as part of her cover.

In 1989, when the opposition in East Germany is getting more powerful, many people on both sides of the wall are happy about it. But Saskia has a different response: she is afraid. Afraid her cover will be blown. Afraid she will be exposed. Afraid the truth about her will be revealed. She is worried, but she cannot tell anyone in her western world about this.

The conflict between her official life in the west and her inner feelings is creating big problems for her. What can she do? How can she deal with this new and unexpected situation? Can she survive the transformation which is on the way?

This is how the story begins and this is where my presentation ends. If you want to find out what happens to Saskia and the people around her, you will have to watch the movie all the way to the end.

I must add one more thing: this is a fictional story which is placed in a real historical context. Only one character is a real historical person: Markus Wolf, who was in charge of East German foreign intelligence (the spies) for more than thirty years. All other characters are fictional, but they are inspired by real persons and placed in real historical events.

What do reviewers say about this spy thriller? On IMDb it has a rating of 71 per cent, which corresponds to 3.5 stars on Amazon. On the German version of Amazon there are at the moment eight reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.4 stars.

If you ask me, the former rating is too low, while the latter rating is too high. Why? Because this spy thriller is not perfect. There are some flaws here and there. Unfortunately, I cannot explain exactly what they are without revealing too much, so you will just have to take my word for it.

This movie is good, but not great.

I think it deserves a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. Ulrich Thomsen, who plays an American official, is in fact a Danish actor. He has a good American accent.

PS # 2. The Rosenholz Files is a collection of secret documents: 381 CD-ROMs containing 280,000 files. The CIA bought these Stasi files under mysterious circumstances around 1990. In 2003 they were handed (back) to Germany. For details, see the following article: Robert Gerald Livingston, “An Operation Called Rosenholz,” The Atlantic Times, March 2006 (available online).

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