Thomas Heise’s documentary STAU – JETZT GEHT’S LOS (Germany 1992) about five radical right-wing adolescents in Halle at the start of the 90s – with German reunification having taken place not long before – was highly controversial at the time and seems as topical as ever today. The director accompanies the young men in their everyday lives in the city’s former exemplary socialist estate and attempts to find the causes of their political views in long conversations. As the film does without any sort of commentary or value judgements, Heise was accused of giving the radical right-wing a platform to express their views and of showing them more as victims than perpetrators. Ralph Eue, curator of the retrospective at DOK Leipzig, presents the hotly debated film after its screening at this year’s festival. (ah) (25.11.)
