Where do I start to describe the calibre and richness of this film?

What perhaps was the most profound realisation from it was that when I arrived in Germany the Wall had only been down about 2 months.

It wasn't until 3-4 years later that the long-range difficulties of unemployment, economics and attitudes filtered through our english media to describe the state of the nation.

My intention in seeing this film was to introduce my hubby to the mindset and psyche of the former east german people and in turn how this contributes to the society that the 'unified' Germany has. I though was further impassioned and reached a new depth of empathy for this culture of poverty and control.

The accuracy with which the story is told may not perhaps be appreciated by those who had not been there; who did not know that the cars were real, the housing was real, the streets were real, the military coats were real.

Oh, for the students of our nation to be exposed to the truths of socialism and recognise its weaknesses.

While I was in the former west I had two experiences that relate in a way to what happened in this masterpiece.

I had traveled to West Berlin, through the checkpoints, and spent one day on the other side of the 'wall' which was still military controlled. During this trip I shot 7 rolls of film. Upon developing and printing 2 were returned to me in part - 17 photos and their negatives missing from one and 7 from the next. They were the ones taken in East Berlin. Coincidence or conspiracy?

The second experience was traveling to the former east and staying overnight in a hotel which for all intensive purposes was somewhere between a backpackers and a motel. Walking down the streets which were narrow, drab, cold and deserted seeing the coal pits that if you had money were used to store fuel for fires. There was a heaviness about the place, a poverty not only of wealth but of mind and soul.

These were both within 1 year of the wall coming down.

Now I appreciate how enriched I am to have had first hand knowledge that years later is woven into another layer of understanding.