Cinema Dérive - Die innere Sicherheit 2000 (The State I am In)
Line up: Julia Hummer, Barbara Auer, Richy Müller

Die innere Sicherheit   2000
(The State I am In)
Directed by Christian Petzold 
106 minutes
In German with English subtitles

Christian Petzold's debut feature, co-scripted with Harun Farocki, throws us into the Germany of the late 1980s. It's a female coming-of-age flick with a radical difference. Although the West German media demonized its other half in the East, this flick shows the heavy mood and alienation that actually existed in the West. Director Petzold was perhaps the most prominent of the new German cinema filmmakers at the turn of the century known as Die Berliner Schule. 

During the late 1960s, a lot of the young generation in Germany became aware of what had happened during World War II. They were confronted with the atrocities of the concentration camps, something they were not taught in schools.... And what's more, they discovered that many previous Nazis were again in positions of power, both in major corporations and politics. These young people held demonstrations, formed resistance groups, and created a widespread left-wing movement. The German government responded with a ruthlessness not seen since the Nazi era. Once the counter-cultural movement was smashed the strongest radicals on the left were hunted down in the 1980s. That's the context of this film as we see two parents with their child on the run through the German landscape.

The parents are constantly moving and hiding, they are paranoid at every turn... and when their 15-year-old daughter falls in love with a young boy, instead of joy, it's seen as dangerous, as a security risk. The young girl is caught in-between two worlds - one of persecution, and one of yearning for acceptance and normality as a teenager. 

Despite being his debut, this remains one of Christian Petzold's sharpest movies... complex, poignant, and a bit of a thriller. This flick was inspired  by the real life story of Wolfgang Grams who was gunned down by the cops when he was on the run. If you're looking for a typical action-packed spectacle it's perhaps better to look elsewhere, but if you're looking for something a bit in that direction, but glimmering with more philosophical and sociological ramifications, then this might be right up your alley.

Doors open  - 19:00
Start film - 19:30