Preview
Bettina
Lutz Pehnert
25 Jun 2022
The event is over
The story of author, composer and singer Bettina Wegner was shaped by that of Cold War Germany. Born in 1947, Bettina sang loud and clear of her life in East Germany, her hopes, her anger, her feeling of being stripped of her roots when exiled to West Berlin – even as many others sought refuge there. In this portrait, she looks back, with her habitual candour and humour, on her life of resistance.
“In 1980, [Bettina Wegner] obtained a passport with a permanent 3-year visa: she could perform in the West. But when she went back to the DDR after those three years, she was told she would be accused of fleeing and sent to prison. Given these threats, she reluctantly returned to the West. She sang about it: "So many of us left, / ah if only nobody had started it, / the sorrow and the anger, / that’s what makes us leave, / my god, it would be just great if you could all stay, / with you, with us…"” Gunnar Decker, Neues Deutschland, 9 February 2022
Lutz Pehnert, Bettina, Germany, 2022, DCP, 107 min, B&W and col., original version, French subtitles.
With Bettina Wegner.
FIPRESCI Prize
When
2:30pm - 4:30pm
Where
Lutz Pehnert, Bettina, 2022
© Jörg Möller