Wir sind das Volk (2008)

Wir sind das Volk: Liebe kennt keine Grenzen (a mini-series in two parts) is a historical drama which premiered on German television (SAT.1) in 2008. The topic is the final days of the East German state. Here is some basic information about this drama:

** English title: We Are the People: Love Knows No Borders

** Directed by Thomas Berger

** Written by Silke Zertz

** Language: German – no English subtitles!

** Released on DVD in 2008

** Part one = 94 minutes;

** Part two = 87 minutes

** Total run time: 181 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Anja Kling as Katja Schell

** Hans-Werner Mayer as Andreas Wagner – Katja’s boyfriend

** Lino Sliskovic as Sven Schell – son of Katja and Andreas

** Matthias Koeberlin as Micha Schell – Katja’s brother

** Felicitas Woll as Mandy Knoop

** Ronald Zehrfeld as Dirk Faber – a friend of Micha’s

** Mina Tander as Esther Frings – Dirk’s girlfriend

** Lucas Gregorowics as Lutz Baumann

** Anna Fischer as Jule Hoffmann

** Jörg Schüttauf as Bernd Hoffmann – Jule’s father – and a policeman

** Kirsten Block as Gunda Hoffmann – Jule’s mother

** Heiner Lauterbach as Bert Schäfer – a Stasi officer

This is a historical drama, i.e. a fictional story that is placed in a historical context. In this case, the final days of East Germany. The first scene takes place in Berlin in August 1983 when Mathias Schell and Andreas Wagner attempt to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin by crossing the death zone and climbing over the Berlin Wall.

[Mathias is Katja’s brother, while Andreas is Katja’s boyfriend.]

They almost make it. But when they get to the wall, they are discovered by East German border guards, who start shooting. Both men are hit. Mathias drops to the ground on the eastern side, and he does not survive. Andreas drops to the ground on the western side, and he survives. Katja is pregnant with his son, but Andreas does not know this yet. He only finds out later, while he is in the west.

The remaining part of the mini-series takes place six years later, in 1989, the last year of the East German state. There are in fact three different story-lines here:

# 1. The first line focuses on Katja, her son Sven, and her attempt to cross the border in order to be united with Andreas. While trying to escape through Hungary, she is caught by the police, but her son manages by some miracle to cross the border into the west. Katja is brought back to Germany. She is sent to prison where she is interrogated by the nasty Stasi officer Bert Schäfer.

# 2. The second line focuses on Micha, his friends, and their attempt to document the struggle for freedom in East Germany.

# 3. The third line focuses on Andreas, who is in the west where he conducts a campaign for human rights in the east.

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore I am not going to reveal too much about what happens in this mini-series.

What do reviewers say about it? On IMDb it has a rating of 66 per cent, which corresponds to 3.3 stars on Amazon. On the German version of Amazon there are at the moment 40 reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.6 stars. If you ask me, both these average ratings are too low.

The mini-series was nominated for several awards and won several of them. It won the German television award (Deutscher Fernsehpreis) 2009 in the category Best Screenplay (Silke Zertz). It also won the German television award 2009 in the category Best Actor/Actress on Television (Anja Kling).

In my opinion, the prestigious awards are fully justified. This miniseries has a captivating, dramatic, and emotional story-line. The script is well-written and the actors play their roles well. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS. The struggle for freedom in East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall is the subject of several historical movies. Here are a few examples:

** Prager Botschaft (2007)

** Jenseits der Mauer (2009)

** Es ist nicht vorbei (2011)

** Bornholmer Strasse (2014)

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