Reiseführer durch 23 Tage im Mai 

Klaus Wildenhahn (R), Frank Groth (K), D 1993, 120 min, dt. OF

Episodes from 23 days of strike in Brandenburg – the first in 60 years in East Germany. The trigger was the sale of Elektro-Stahlwerke to the Italian Riva Group by the Treuhand. When an old union friend called, Klaus Wildenhahn drove to Brandenburg with cameraman Frank Groth. On May 1st they shoot tap dancing dressed in tails, after 20 days of strike they film the kung fu movie ›The Sword‹ until one o’clock in the morning in the strike bar.

Then the everyday life of the strike again: Strikers and those willing to work clash at the factory gate, truck drivers and crane drivers in between – still a woman’s job, and with the german turnaround out of the picture. The young are retrained, the old released. At the beginning and the end of this black and white documentary there is the same picture: a slightly shabby room in a pub in Brandenburg. You dance a little awkwardly to pop music – the strike is over. (rg)

Followed by a live video conversation with cameraman Frank Groth (German)