Length: 90'
Director: Viola Stephan
Director / Producer: Viola Stephan
Cinematography: Pavel Lebeshev
In the 1920s, Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev described Berlin as both the westernmost city of the East and the easternmost city of the West. Historically the first stop for Russians heading westward, Berlin has long been a city of passage: open, restless, and home to outsiders. After the Cold War, Russian voices again resonate in its streets, as if the East had moved closer.
War’s End explores how Berlin copes with changing historical conditions after the fall of the Wall—the third such aftermath of war in the twentieth century. The film portrays those arriving, those settling, and those leaving, tracing disruptions in a city marked by its scars.
Shot between October 1991 and March 1992, the film spans Berlin’s eastern and western districts, Potsdam’s Soviet garrison, the Wünsdorf–Brest military train, and the borderlands of Brest and Kienitz. Through Russian and German perspectives, it investigates the layered presence of Russians in Berlin—soldiers, emigrants, and refugees.
SUNDAY, MAY 3 · 22:30h | Seminario Menor de Tui