In the Splendour of Happiness

You can find the beginning of the film at filmportal.de.

Rhine wine in Saxony! It is served at a CDU information stand shortly before the first and only free election to the People’s Chamber of the GDR, which gives the West German party 40.8% of the vote in East Germany. But while the East Germans appear thoroughly sober despite the sweet drink, it is the people from the West who are intoxicated during the election campaign in February/March 1990. “Socialism is over. Nobody wants it anymore,” Helmut Kohl triumphs. In his place, his finance minister identifies an “expanded economic area.” And soon enough, a Nazi banner sets its sights on the German “eastern territories” as the next target for “reunification.”

“How do different generations experience the uncertainty, disorientation, and questioning of the old values of the GDR?” was what the East-West German documentary film collective “Blick ins Land” wanted to know in this situation. By interviewing female workers, schoolgirls, border guards, police officers, a teacher, and a Stasi officer about their experiences and feelings, it contrasted the “glitter of this happiness” with an unvarnished flip side.

Source: 76th Berlin International Film Festival (catalog)

Directors · Johann Feindt | Jeanine Meerapfel | Helga Reidemeister | Dieter Schumann | Tamara Trampe
Dramaturgy · Tamara Trampe (consultant)
Camera · Johann Feindt | Peter van den Reek
Camera assistant · Matthias Maas | Heidemarie Spessert
Special effects camera · Thomas Wilk
Editing · Juliane Maria Lorenz
Editing assistant · Britta Pohland
Negative editing · Elke Granke
Sound Editing · Margritt Braun
Sound · Jochen Hergersberg | Dietmar Klein | Paul Oberle | Johann Feindt
Mixing · Martin Steyer
Music · André Bauer
Producer · Wolfgang Pfeiffer

Distribution in Germany · Deutsche Kinemathek · filmverleih@deutsche-kinemathek.de