The director's father, Professor Horst E.M. Schüppel - a 23 year old teacher in the Soviet occupied zone of East Germany - was a founding member of the LDP in Saxony. Although this involvement was bound to lead to political persecution, Schüppel decided not to flee to the Western zones. He was arrested in 1948 and later released, along with many other political prisoners, in 1955, following Stalin's death. Through interviews with ex-prisoners who knew his father, the author meticulously retraces the events leading to his father's arrest, and his incarceration in East Germany and Russia. These testimonies, combined with images of prison camps and extracts from his father's letters read by the author himself, exposes the steps taken for his father's political rehabilitation. Filmed in black and white, this personal documentary juxtaposes the author's quest for his father and the disclosure of a hidden part of East Germany's history, bringing back the past through painful words and phrases and breaking the silence between generations.
Frozen Stories
Direction
Uli M. Schüppel
Voice
Christian Brückner
Camera
Wolfgang Hogekamp
Uli M. Schüppel
Music
Blixa Bargeld
Sound
Susan Turcot
Mixing
Christian Graupner
Screenplay
Uli M. Schüppel
Editing
Uli M. Schüppel
Production
Uli M. Schüppel
Color
Black and white
Keywords
Injustice, Memory, Poetry, Journal, Repression, War