... dann leben sie noch heute. Die Kinder von Golzow

The nineteenth part of the long-term chronicle, “The Children of Golzow,” about a class that started school in 1961, tells the stories of Elke, Karin, Eckhard, and Bernhard. Unlike many of their classmates, these four have all remained in Golzow, a small village in the Oderbruch region. They look back on their lives there and also talk about today. The chronicle – at more than 40 years the longest in film history – doesn’t only capture the life and developments of the protagonists during the GDR. It continues beyond the history of the GDR to document the change in political and social relations after reunification, creating an unusual record of German history. Through their decades of observation, the Junge’s have themselves become Golzowers in a certain sense. Actually, after the film from 2006, the End of the Endless Story was supposed to have been reached. But Winfried Junge continues to maintain contact with his “Golzower children.” He constantly inquires after them, trying to make their life stories comprehensible in images. At the end of the episodes about those portrayed, still photos review the past 47 years in quick succession. Parts of a life and a chunk of history, unembellished and beautiful, sad and unrelenting.
Gabriela Seidel