Kruso (2018)

In the summer of 1989, Edgar Bergler, a student from Halle (Saale) known as “Ed,” crosses over to Hiddensee, intending to swim out of the GDR and reach Denmark. To do so, he hides in the dunes’ bushes one evening and undresses, but another man catches him by surprise and knocks him to the ground. Together they wait for the search patrols to pass. Then the stranger whispers to Ed that he should report to Krombach at the “Klausner” and say that Kruso sent him. The “Klausner” is a holiday home and excursion inn whose staff, led by Werner Krombach, consists of “shipwrecked” people—socially uprooted individuals of all kinds. Krombach sees the community as an “ark” and himself as the captain of this ship. After some bizarre tests and rituals, Ed is accepted into the crew. At first, he believes they will help him flee the Republic, but it turns out they are offering him an alternative instead. The charismatic Kruso, whose real name is Alexej Krusowitsch, is described by Krombach as the heart and instigator of the community. He considers attempts to escape from Hiddensee pointless, ever since his sister Sonja died during one many years ago, leaving him deeply traumatized. Kruso has never left the island and knows its border-security measures very well. One evening, he explains to Ed that he would have swum straight into the patrols’ arms. To spare as many would-be Republic escapees as possible from this fate, Kruso builds a collective out of them at the “Klausner”: a community of people who are different but share the same ideals, bound together by cooperation and friendship—a pocket of personal freedom amid the unfreedom of the GDR system, based on Kruso’s idea that freedom can only ever be found within oneself, and never in any particular place. The shipwrecked people who gather on Hiddensee are given hospitality for three days, after which they must leave the island. Hidden places to sleep have been set up all over the island, and Western literature banned in the GDR is distributed. The crew also takes shipwrecked people into their rooms, often leading to sexual encounters. The radio in the “Klausner” kitchen plays Deutschlandfunk continuously, reporting on the gradual collapse of the GDR. These reports are heard, but their significance only becomes clear at the “Klausner” when some crew members leave to go West via Hungary. Kruso sees this as betrayal and a personal disappointment. The inn is left short-staffed. It emerges that the island’s political leadership knows about the “Klausner” but tolerates it. When Krombach loses his official job—which has nothing to do with his work at the “Klausner”—and has to go into hiding to avoid prosecution, only Ed and Kruso remain in the community. The summer holidays are over, no more guests arrive, and the shipwrecked people now have easy escape routes available to them. But Kruso feels bound to his sister to continue the now-pointless work on Hiddensee, and on Sonja’s birthday he finally announces that he will follow her. For no reason, he now also sees Ed as a traitor and attacks him. Kruso is seriously injured in the fight, and Ed tenderly cares for him. The doctor has also left the island and her practice has been ransacked, so Ed has no choice but to ask for help from the hated Stasi officer responsible for the area. The officer informs Kruso’s father, a general in the Red Army, who has Kruso taken away. As the last remaining member of the crew, Ed closes the “Klausner” for good and walks along the beach as a radio report announces the opening of the border to everyone.