Dreamland GDR

Co-director Petra Lataster returns with her husband Peter to a school reunion in her native country, the former East Germany (the GDR). Petra narrates and is seen on-screen, both as the interviewer and as one of the classmates. The group takes a boat trip. Petra Lataster meets separately with some of her former classmates. The son of a former party leader who got ahead in the army, frankly admits that he misses the GDR. Another openly says that he used to be a camp follower, while a third, an ophthalmologist, considered The Wall not only a personal, but also a professional obstacle. In the process, these ex-classmates from an average class in the GDR offer a whole spectrum of reactions to their homeland’s demise. Petra Lataster, who also examines her own Stasi file, mixes the conversations with archives of the GDR, the East-German youth movement and their school class. Memories of flags, banners and cosmonauts breathe a subdued Ostalgia, a longing for the East, into the film., into the film, Apart from their past in the GDR where politics played a major role, the film also examines the lives of present-day ex-Ossies. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)