Section: Friend as Enemy

DER SCHWARZE KASTEN

THE BLACK BOX

Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt

Germany, 1992, 95 Min

In 1990, Tamara Trampe and Johann Feindt were the first to ever get a Stasi officer, who was also a lecturer in operative psychology, on camera and to reveal his socialisation, his motives and arguments. He was interested in people, he says, and wanted to do the work in a more "humane" way. And not a word of regret.

Johann Feindt

In a heated round of discussion in 1990, Stasi officer Jochen Girke stood up and complained that nobody would talk to him. Trampe and Feindt take him at his word and talk to him on camera for over a year. As a doctor of psychology, he taught the subject "operative psychology" to interrogators, prison psychologists and senior officers and thus had a great influence on the methodology of state security. The filmmakers shed light on his private and professional life, talk to people from his environment and try to trace the turning points of his life, his socialization, his thinking. He repeats like an answering machine that he was interested in a more humanistic approach, that he had achieved a lot in this direction. However, he cannot or will not see that the methods have become subtler and more perfidious, that the investigative work has essentially been based on the organization and enforcement of acts of treason. A unique, informative document on the phenomenon of "betrayal". KF

Filmformat
Pro Re | Doc | Farbe / Colour

Drehbuch
Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt

Kamera
Johann Feindt

Ton
Paul Oberle

Schnitt
Sybille Windt

Produzent
Wolfgang Pfeiffer

Produktion
Max Film

Co-Produktion
WDR Köln

Kontakt
Johann Feindt
Naunynstr.69
10997 Berlin
Germany
+49 172 32 17 322
jo.feindt@web.de

Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt - Tamara Trampe – born in 1942 in Voronezh, USSR. She has lived in Germany since she was eight years old. She studied German language and literature at the University of Rostock. She then worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a dramaturge at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films for many years. She has been a freelance filmmaker, author and dramaturge since 1990 and teaches at various film schools.

Filme | movies

IM GLANZE DIESES GLÜCKES (1990, doc)

WEIẞE RABEN – ALPTRAUM TSCHETSCHENIEN (2005, doc)

WIEGENLIEDER (2009, doc)

MEINE MUTTER, EIN KRIEG UND ICH (2014, doc)

Johann Feindt – born in 1951 in Hamburg, Germany. He first studied medicine before studying film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). Since then he has worked primarily as a cameraman, but also as a director and author. He has made numerous feature films, documentaries and television films, among others in collaboration with Tamara Trampe.

Filme | movies

DER VERSUCH ZU LEBEN (1983, doc, FFC 2010)

MEIN FREUND, DER MINISTER (1998, doc)

WEIẞE RABEN – ALPTRAUM TSCHETSCHENIEN (2005, doc)

WIEGENLIEDER (2009, doc)

MEINE MUTTER, EIN KRIEG UND ICH (2014, doc)

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