"Jenseits der Mauer", which means "Beyond the Wall", or "Der Mauerfall" (really basic working title, glad they did not go with it) is a German television film from 2009, so this one is already over a decade old, maybe considerably older depending on when you read my review. 3rd October is approaching again here in my country, so these films are shown more frequently again right now. With "these films" I mean of course films linked to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Or linked to Germany in general during the times of separation. And it is still, not only in 2009, a topic so crucial in terms of German history that it attracts big names all the time. I will not list the names in particular, but there are like ten actors part of the cast here that are still very well-known here in Germany and most of them already were back then when this was made. Check out the list for yourself. Pretty impressive, especially for a small screen release. The two names I shall give you are those of director Friedemann Fromm and writer Holger Karsten Schmidt. Both have received a great deal of awards recognition throughout their long careers that started back in the 1980s/1990s already. So certainly an ambitious project we have here. Is the outcome accordingly? Sadly, I would not say so. You can see from my rating. I mean this is still infinitely better than 90-95% of other films shown on German television, especially in the afternoon where it was on a few days ago, but this does not mean it is a satisfying watch. During these 1.5 hours there was only really one occasion when the film was extremely bad and this was in the second half already, closer to the end in fact, when the female protagonist wants her husband to spy at his work and send secrets to the GDR in order to make sure their daughter is allowed to travel over to West Germany because she lives in east Germany in contrast to her parents and brother. This is the key story. But I shall get to that in a minute. First of all, let me elaborate a bit on this horrific scene. What was on there with the dialogue stretching, the pseudo dramatic breaks before a character responds to another and eventually the music. Most of all the music. Or as it sound effects. Like so bizarre. It felt taken out of a completely different movie, a terrible student movie that is 100% style over substance. Honestly, this scene alone, their argument there and how it was depicted makes it clear for me I could never say this was a good movie from any perspective. It may sound harsh with one scene, but trust me it felt all kinds of wrong. So this is a key criticism I have. I have more criticisms. More basic ones. Like overall, it felt a bit unrealistic here and there and over the top with how they were trying to create drama, sometimes comedy too and of course, even for people like me who experienced almost nothing of the GDR themselves anymore, it is an emotional subject, but watching this film felt never as emotional or touching as it should have. At least not to me. That's why I would not call it a success. The best example is the really tense flight scene in the first 15 minutes or so. How he drives so quickly away and tries to flee is very questionable I gotta say. I mean yes the guard was suspicious, but all seemed fine until then. Or how the kids were not injured despite all these shots fired. Or the parents. That was very much drama for the sake of it.
So we see the girl grow up in a different country after being given up for adoption. The guilt in this scenario is also a bit of a key aspect in this movie. Or they did not know if they wanted it to be a key aspect. Like they use it very early on when the mother says she will stay then, but right away the consequence would be that she goes not only to jail, but that both kids are given up for adoption immediately afterward. So letting the girl behind is the only valid choice. But why would the GDR officer even make such an offer? Questions over questions. Later on, there is a lot of further elaboration on all this. Like how the parents, especially the mother, miss her daughter so much that they are willing to go back to see her. Or in the end, when they are united, the girl is not mad at all at her biological parents. She knew what happened too them, that they were forced to leave her behind and that it was not a choice against her from any perspective. Just picking the lesser evil. Still there is another conflict that felt fairly shoddy and there I am talking about the brief moment when the daughter says something like she already has parents, when she talks to her brother, and does not even know if she really wants to be in touch with her real parents. These "other" parents are also in a complicated scenario obviously and you could see why they never told her daughter or wanted to wait until she is 18 before telling her. They are absolutely not depicted as villains or antagonists or child thieves or anything. They have their own challenges and they love their daughter, even if it is not their biological daughter. There is also conflict between these two as the longer the film goes and the more the GDR crumbles, the female is unhappy with the male's job as he works in a positiion where he asks questions to political enemies. But he is far from convinced that he is doing the right thing either. he is just doing what he learnt and what he has always been doing. But in the scene with his daughter and her dedicated talk about Paris it becomes clear that family is much more to him than ideology, so Knaup's character here sure has two or three similarities with Mühe in "Das Leben der Anderen", which is still the defining performance in a film like this and probably always will be. But back to this one here. I think the performances are alright all in all. Nobody truly stands out, maybe Selge if I had to pick somebody and I can see why he is the one from the ensemble cast who also got a bit of awards recognition, but this also means that it was an ensemble that would have deserved a better script surely and this could have become a great film. And maybe do without Koffler. Sorry, he was pretty weak here, even if his character was also not wwritten well at all. Adds nothing to a film that has more males than females give good performances. Ah yes some nice music here too, like one of Madonna's old songs. And more. Oh yes, the really famous Schabowski press conference is part of this film too. It always is kinda because of how everybody knows it and knows it is the moment that people could travel freely again between FRG and GDR after half a century. Still pretty epic. But also pretty sad, like a lost generation a bit. Still this press conference has certainly been overused in movies by now I would say, so I'd like it better if people did not use it in the future anymore for these films about the GDR. Nonetheless, I am glad they still get made, but I hope they can be a bit better again than this one here. I say there's hundreds of others you may wanna watch on this subject before giving this one a go. It's a thumbs-down for me.
