VATERLANDSVERRÄTER (Enemy of the State)

Director: Annekatrin Hendel, Documentary, Germany 2011, 90 min., German with subtitles

It is about as difficult to reach him as to get to him. Director Annekatrin Hendel trudges through a lot of snow in the middle of nowhere in the Uckermark (a region in north-eastern Germany). It is the first day of shooting for a film on 75-year-old writer Paul Gratzik, former Stasi informant, turned apostate, turned dissident. The first thing Gratzik defiantly announces is that there will be no discussion on the Stasi. She will just have to get that out of her head. Period. But now we have the film. On one hand it is a psychological profile of an extraordinarily paradoxical figure, a "man of extremes": satyr, seducer, radical and hermit. On the other hand, VATERLANDSVERRÄTER tells a story about the GDR, its critics and the Stasi as it has never, in the 20 years since the End of East Germany, been told before.

"Vaterlandsverräter" is a multifaceted portrait and so far the best cinematic counter model to "The Lives of Others".
- Berliner Zeitung -

Director and Producer Annekatrin Hendel was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. After finishing her study of design, she worked as a freelance costume and production designer. In 2004 Hendel started her own company IT WORKS! Medien and acts as a producer of feature films and documentaries, director and CEO. Hendel is a member of the German film academy.