Leipzig Film Festival: Insights into life in the GDR and exciting debates!

Leipzig Film Festival: Insights into life in the GDR and exciting debates!

As part of the DOK Leipzig Festival, several films from the film university celebrated their premiere on September 20, 2025. Highlights are the feature film “Im Stillen Laut” and the short film “Night over Kepler 452b”. Filmuni reports that the feature-length film deals with the life story of Erika and Tine, two 81-year-old women, in the GDR. The focus is on the challenges of freedom, autonomy and love, which led to the outrage of the Stasi.

The short film “Night over Kepler 452b”, which lasts 14 minutes, shows a different dimension of the human experience. He illustrates the desperate attempts by helpers to save homeless people from freezing to death by pushing them into a minibus. In another international program, the long-term observation “Autobahn” over Bad Oeynhausen and its problems with the B 61 is celebrating its world premiere. The film addresses bureaucracy, major construction projects and everyday life in Germany in the context of a section of motorway that has been missing for 40 years and the associated construction of a bypass road.

Variety of film contributions

In addition, the animated documentary “Inside Me” will be shown in the international short film program. It deals with a woman's difficult decision about having an abortion. Another remarkable contribution, “Waldstück”, takes the audience to a forest in Brandenburg and addresses the archaeological security of a concentration camp subcamp.

For young audiences, the Kids DOK special series offers the film “Waves of Light”, which tells the story of a girl named Frida who has a special perception of the world and sees colors and outlines blurred. In addition, as part of “Re-Visions”, the film “Why make a film about these people?”, produced by the Filmuni in 1980, will be shown. presented, which deals with a stolen motorcycle and the investigation in the milieu.

DOK Leipzig and its history

DOK Leipzig is not just a current festival, but has a rich history marked by political and social tensions. The festival was launched in the 1960s and quickly encountered ideological challenges. DOK-Leipzig reports, that there were massive debates behind the scenes about the political direction. Pressure from dogmatic SED politicians meant that the festival was unable to comment on liberal topics and critical films were often rejected.

The Stasi, dissatisfied with the festival's contacts with the West, exerted influence early on. The director had to submit regular reports, while demonstrations were more simply but effectively disguised. As late as the 1980s, there were peaceful protests outside cinema screenings, which increased tensions around the festival. Despite the censorship sentiments, the festival managed to bring important and controversial topics to the screen, making it an important cultural event.

This cultural context is rounded off by the “Handbook” platform, which provides comprehensive information about films about the GDR in film. GDR in the film offers systematic and understandable content that not only provides film information, but also extensive context and classification of the works.

The film university wishes everyone involved much success and joy in presenting these films. The festival remains a place where creative expression and discussion of social issues go hand in hand.