Die unheimliche Leichtigkeit der Revolution (2021)

Leipzig, 1988: Franka Blankenstein is a 19-year-old student preparing for her school-leaving exams. She hopes to train as a print worker and dreams with her friend Trixi of going to concerts by Western stars. One night, she meets Stefan Clausnitz by chance as he flees the police. Under the auspices of the church, he works for environmental protection in the region alongside like-minded people who live in an old building slated for demolition and plan their actions there. As a conscientious objector and the group’s spokesman, he is a target of the Stasi and is often subjected to repression. He works as a caregiver for the elderly. Franka falls in love with him, joins the group, and quickly becomes one of its most active and courageous members. It is her idea, for example, to disguise a demonstration as a memorial procession. At school, too, she increasingly draws attention for her criticism of the state. Like Stefan, whose father died in a concealed workplace accident and whose mother later died by suicide, Franka’s activism is also driven by personal experience. Her younger brother died of pseudocroup when she was living with her family in a village near the lignite-mining area outside Bitterfeld. At the time, Franka’s mother had highlighted the problems through various petitions, but ultimately reconciled herself to the system. Now a full-time employee of the Democratic Women’s League, she is summoned before the party leadership several times because of her daughter’s actions. However, she refuses to spy on Franka. Over time, the group’s work becomes increasingly political. In January 1989, they decide to turn the memorial event for Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg into a demonstration for freedom of expression and to call for it with leaflets. At Franka’s initiative, they break into their school at night to use its printing presses to produce as many leaflets as possible. The group distributes them throughout the city, while Franka, on her own initiative, distributes more at her school. When the police show up there the next morning, Franka forestalls being exposed and is arrested, as are other members of the group. The leaflet campaign has an impact, however: the gathering in Leipzig’s market square becomes one of the catalysts for the Peaceful Revolution. Much to the Stasi’s displeasure, the detainees are released; the state leadership does not want international attention. At first, though, there is no sign of Stefan. The Stasi plants the suspicion in Franka’s mind that he had actually been working for them as an unofficial informant. With her parents’ support, Franka takes over Stefan’s job in elderly care, moves in with the group at the building slated for demolition, and continues her work for environmental protection and freedom of expression. A video message from Stefan clears things up: he narrowly escaped arrest that night and fled to the West; he describes his time with her as the happiest of his life.