Westen

Christian Schwochow : 2013
West

Two suitcases, a schoolbag, a plush toy – that's all Nelly Senff and her son Alexei take with them to begin their new life. A Volkswagen stops in front of their house in East Berlin. Nelly is nervous. The year is 1978. It's summer, three years after Wassilij's death. Nelly's boyfriend and Alexei's father died in a car accident in Russia. Since he is dead, Nelly wants to leave too. Away from the GDR, to leave the grief and the memories behind. To get a fresh start. That should be possible in the West, or so Nelly believes. When she leaves, when she gets into the car, she is wearing a floral dress. But over there in the West, she doesn't know anybody. The first place of refuge for immigrants from the East is Marienfelde, a cramped emergency camp in West Berlin. Marienfelde is a hotspot between two political systems. And the place where her past catches up with her. The West German secret police take her aside for interrogation; they ask her about Wassilij. Nelly has to decide whether she will let the trauma of the past destroy the future she had in mind for her and her son. Christian Schwochow's third feature won Best Actress award and the FIPRESCI Prize World Competition at Montréal World Film Festival 2013.