Gotteszell

"Nobody is safe from being jolted by a thought. Nobody can say: I will never do that." This Marguerite Duras quote opens Helga Reidemeister's documentary GOTTESZELL (D 2000) about the eponymous women's correctional facility in Baden-Württemberg. In addition to drug addicts, most of whom are serving relatively short sentences for addiction-related crimes, the filmmaker also gives a voice to prisoners sentenced to life for murder or manslaughter. Experiences of violence, abuse, feelings of guilt and atonement are raised but no comment is proferred on the statements of the prisoners, nor on those of the judicial officers and psychologists who, for their part, try to understand the crimes and to come to terms with the perpetrators. The event will commemorate director Helga Reidemeister, who died last December. (ah)