2002 Documentary

In September 2002, eleven years after filming the original documentary we returned to Neubrandenburg to visit the town and its people. The town we found had changed: it resembled a small modern city not unlike the towns you would see in the Western part of Germany. And the lives of those, whom we had interviewed in 1991, had changed as well. What is portrayed in Drehort Neubrandenburg 2002 are updates of the lives of the original town people and their reflections on the last eleven years.

When we first presented Drehort Neubrandenburg at Neubrandenburg's annual DokumentART film festival in 1992, it challenged the viewers to confront issues long brushed aside. When we showed the original documentary again to the people in Neubrandenburg in September 2002, there were tears reflecting not only pain for the difficult times they had endured but also a stoic pride and optimism: this was their city, their countryside and, unlike some who had left for other opportunities, they had stayed.