The rousing youth drama tells how a young love heralded the beginning of the end of the GDR.
The story of the beginning of the end of the GDR has often been told on television. The prototype of this historical subgenre is the ARD two-parter “Nikolaikirche” (1995) based on Erich Loest’s novel. “The uncanny lightness of the revolution” differs from the many, often excellent, TV productions primarily through its perspective: the story is told almost exclusively from the perspective of young people.
The film is a fictionalization of the facts that Peter Wensierski compiled for his non-fiction book of the same name, published in 2017. The title refers to the energy and commitment of a group of young Leipzig eco-activists who realize that if they want to save the environment, they have to change the system. Like the original, the screenplay by Thomas Kirchner is above all a homage to young people’s right to resist. This is also where the unmistakable reference to the present lies. Environmentalists in the GDR, in which, according to the official interpretation, there were of course no environmental problems at all, risked significantly more than their epigones a good forty years later, but the parallels to “Fridays for Future” are unmistakable.
Janina Fautz is the star in the ARD film “The uncanny ease of revolution”
The driving force behind this ninety-minute short film “The uncanny ease of revolution” * is the change in the main character, embodied by Janina Fautz at all times. Vocational school student Franka Blankenstein is 19 and a young woman who above all wants to enjoy life and does not worry about politics. That changed when she met Stefan (Ferdinand Lehmann) in May 1988. Already the first meeting welded the two together: Stefan is on the run from a patrol of the People’s Police, but cheats the men; and Franka then sends them in the wrong direction.
In the rush, Stefan lost his bag. Franka finds a leaflet in it that invites the Nature and Environment Working Group to attend the devotion on the same evening. Actually, she wanted to go to the disco with her friend Trixi (Katja Hutko), but now the two end up in the church, where they immediately look like birds of paradise with their bright make-up and colorful clothes. What Franka hears there sets in motion a process that will ultimately bring her to jail; she faces a ten-year prison sentence for conspiracy and anti-subversive agitation.
“The uncanny ease of the revolution” (ARD): story of a political awakening
In the eighty film minutes in between, Kirchner, creator and author of the “Spreewald Krimis” on ZDF, as well as director Andy Fetscher, who most recently shot a classic horror film in the guise of crime (“Tatort: Fear You”, 2017), tell the typical story of a political awakening. There is a very plausible reason why the messages from the environmental group fall on such fertile ground at Franka: The Blankenstein family used to live near Bitterfeld. Franka’s little brother died of pseudo croup when he was five years old. For Franka it is now becoming clear what she may have always suspected: Like many other children in the area, Lars has become a victim of environmental toxins.
This explains why she soon becomes involved in a way that her mother Renate (Inka Friedrich) observes with concern. When Franka defies her completely humorless and one hundred percent loyal teacher (Torsten Michaelis) in political class, Renate is summoned to the SED district leadership. In a scene that is as astonishing as it is daring as an actor, Franka risks a lot in an anticipated “Femen” action to point out the state of Pleiße; During the GDR era, the water was considered to be a synonym for a dead river because of the contamination with sewage from the chemical industry.
| role | Actress |
| Franka Blankenstein t | Janina Fautz |
| Stefan Clausnitz t | Ferdinand Lehmann |
| Renate Blankenstein t | Inka Friedrich |
| Horst Blankenstein t | Alexander Hörbe |
| Trixie | Katja Hutko |
“The uncanny lightness of the revolution” (ARD): Ferdinand Lehmann is a discovery
The second focus of the story is the first great love. Janina Fautz is the star of the film, but Ferdinand Lehmann is its discovery. The young actor may bear a greater burden than his play partner, because he has to understandably embody that Franka is blown away from the first encounter, and he seems to be able to do that effortlessly. Stefan lives in a commune that has settled in an empty house; the music by Ton Steine Scherben is an unmistakable reference to the role models of the West German squatter scene.
Initially it was really only about environmental issues, but at Franka’s efforts, the group eventually advocated free elections and a free press. The highlight of the activities is a demonstration on January 15th, the seventieth anniversary of the death of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. With a daring action, which certainly not by chance reminds of Hans and Sophie Scholl, Franka wants to motivate as many people from Leipzig as possible to take part in the demo; Fetscher staged the corresponding scenes with the support of the already good music (Philipp E. Kümpel, Andreas Moisa) as gripping as a thriller.
To the broadcast
“The uncanny ease of the revolution”, April 28, ARD, 8:15 pm
Goosebumps moment in the ARD film “The uncanny lightness of the revolution”
The quality of this captivatingly good film is rounded off by the remarkable game of the young actors in particular and the concise cast of the adults; Alexander Hörbe, for example, doesn’t have much text as Franka’s father, but exudes a great positive presence. However, Janina Fautz deserves the award, whose natural sympathy is the perfect prerequisite for the role of the main character.
When Franka talks about her little brother’s fate during the environmental prayer and accuses the state of sacrificing small children on the altar of socialism and progress, the young actress makes this performance a real goosebump (Tilmann P. Gangloff) * giessener-allgemeine.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
