STAU – JETZT GEHT’S LOS

STAU – JETZT GEHT’S LOS is the first in a series of three documentaries that director Thomas Heise made in Halle-Neustadt between 1992 and 2007. In it, he portrays young people from Halle-Neustadt, showing the broken social environment of the post-reunification period, the overburdened teachers and families.

Shortly after reunification, there is not much left of the utopia of social justice and equality in the former socialist housing estate of Halle-Neustadt. The young people have seen the GDR and their parents fail. Their trust in the state and social structures has been lost. ROXY, a youth club in Halle-Neustadt, is their meeting point and also the place where Heise first encounters them. In an effort to meet them as equals, he gradually starts talking to them and their families. Heise shows the ideology, but also the hopelessness and forlornness of the young people. His much-discussed film is considered an important testimony to East German conditions in the post-reunification period.

Director, writer: Thomas Heise,
Camera: Sebastian Richter
Camera assistant: Frank Penzold
Editing: Karin Geiß
Sound: Uve Haussig
Participants: Heidrun Pick, Falco Pick, Konrad Roock, Ronny Gleffe, Heinz Gleffe, Ingrid Gleffe, Roland Maier, Susann Schwabenland
Production: ö-Film Frank Löprich & Katrin Schlösser Filmproduktion, Berlin
Producer: Frank Löprich, Katrin Schlösser