The Miracle of Leipzig (Das Wunder von Leipzig-Wir sind das Volk) reviews
Review by on 25 Sep 2010
brilliant brilliant brilliant.
amazing event very well captured....real footage, reenactments that were tasteful and realistic.
this is what filmaking is all about! or is that filmmaking....
what the hell is it with Leipzig...they also published Max Stirner's book in 1845....the place is a hotbed of revolutionary thought!
i really hope heaps of people see this movie...and come to the meeting at my place on Monday night....our work has just begun!
amazing event very well captured....real footage, reenactments that were tasteful and realistic.
this is what filmaking is all about! or is that filmmaking....
what the hell is it with Leipzig...they also published Max Stirner's book in 1845....the place is a hotbed of revolutionary thought!
i really hope heaps of people see this movie...and come to the meeting at my place on Monday night....our work has just begun!
Review by on 23 Sep 2010
The concept of a private life was unthinkable in 1980s East Germany. Work, rest and play were all orchestrated by the state. Leipzig’s Monday demonstrations steadily grew in size and frequency. It was here, around the St Nikolai Church, that 70,000 voices of dissent famously gathered in peaceful revolt, shocking the Stasi into stasis with their cries of “Wir sind das Volk” (We are the people). But what outcome were the nameless dissidents hoping for? According to producer Leopold Hoesch, some East Germans will tell you today that they were fighting for unification – but an equal number will say that they were simply looking for a better quality of life in their own country.
THE MIRACLE OF LEIPZIG reconstructs the events of September 11, 1989 using scraps of remaining Stasi surveillance footage, patched together effectively with dramatised and thoroughly researched re-enactments of the key events. These are brought to life by first-hand accounts from the key protestors, from the reluctant young policemen and even from ex-Stasi. The drama is tempered by humorous anecdotes from activists Uwe Schwabe and Udo Hartmann – from dodging speed cameras in their “Peace Golf” to the Dutch film reporter who used a documentary on beavers as cover for his secret filming of the political controversy. A made for TV documentary, it is restrained in its depiction of violence and suffering, but the imagery of the surveillance state is all too familiar – we should be grateful that we have nothing to fear but the television detector van.
Rosy Hunt
THE MIRACLE OF LEIPZIG reconstructs the events of September 11, 1989 using scraps of remaining Stasi surveillance footage, patched together effectively with dramatised and thoroughly researched re-enactments of the key events. These are brought to life by first-hand accounts from the key protestors, from the reluctant young policemen and even from ex-Stasi. The drama is tempered by humorous anecdotes from activists Uwe Schwabe and Udo Hartmann – from dodging speed cameras in their “Peace Golf” to the Dutch film reporter who used a documentary on beavers as cover for his secret filming of the political controversy. A made for TV documentary, it is restrained in its depiction of violence and suffering, but the imagery of the surveillance state is all too familiar – we should be grateful that we have nothing to fear but the television detector van.
Rosy Hunt
Review by on 22 Sep 2010
Ordinary people can change their worlds : merely the desire to make their voices heard, the curiosity which led people to go and find out what was happening at the St Nicolas church every Monday evening, the accumulation of interest building into protest or the experience of radical thought transformed by arrest and imprisonment : the march which heard the chant of "We are not hooligans" turn into "We are the people" : a fascinating insight into the radical social changes which were evolving in East Germany in 1989. Sobered by the brave accounts given by paratroopers, militia, clergy and former Stasi officers who have everything to lose now. Thank you for showing this documentary, a piece of a complex jigsaw which needs to continue.
Review by on 21 Sep 2010
Exceptionally well put together. Quite a coup to interview the protesters, the everyday people who were tired of losing any strands of freedom, the deadpan Stasi and their army, firemen etc. Cleverly showing not just the courage of those individual protestors, but the power of everyday people once roused as a force to change their predicament.
Review by on 21 Sep 2010
Although possibly not the most cinimatic film ever made, the miracle of Leipzig is an engaging and informative documentary. Telling the story of a group of peace activists in Leipzig in 1988. This is Just the sort of film going experience we have come to expect from the Cambridge film festival, the story of a small group of people who played a big part in an even bigger "miracle" it was fascinating and beautiful to see this, how powerful human spirit can be when it rises up against a repressive regime.
Hearing the stories of people who were pivotal in toppling the east German government and the berlin wall was truly heartwarming. A treat.
Hearing the stories of people who were pivotal in toppling the east German government and the berlin wall was truly heartwarming. A treat.
Film details
The Miracle of Leipzig (Das Wunder von Leipzig-Wir sind das Volk)
GERMAN FILMS
Director: Sebastian Dehnhardt
Director: Matthias Schmidt
Director: Matthias Schmidt
Germany, 2009.
90 mins. with English subtitles.
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