Documentary

Germany / Belgium, 2005, Colour

Running Time: 57’

Production: Majade Filmproduktion (Leipzig, D)

Coproduction: Cobra Films (Brussels, Belgium)

Director and Photography : Ulrike Knorr

Editing : Luc Plantier

Music: L’Ironie du Son, Chas Smith

Shooting Places: Germany, Baltic States, Caribic, MS Athena

Original language: german

Subtitels: french and english

Format: 4:3

Beta SP

Sound: Mono

Synopsis:

« MS Völkerfreundschaft” takes us on a cruise to ancient St. Petersburg in amongst a group of animated East German citizens. From 1960 to 1985 the “holiday ship” MS Völkerfreundschaft (literally: Nations’ Friendship) permitted the East German working classes to tour the world’s oceans.

Does the ship represent a condensed German Democratic Republic or a place of liberty and of escape out on sea? Or might it stand for the frontiers of the system, when one thinks of the individuals who tried to escape by jumping overboard?…

Screenings:

- ARTE First TV Screening

- Actor Studio, Brussels (B)

- Kino im Sprengel, Hannover (B)

- Kino Arsenal, Freunde der deutschen
  Kinemathek e.V., Berlin (D)