Dreckfresser

Dirt for Dinner

Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2022

Dreckfresser (2000) is Branwen Okpako’s graduation film from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). It documents the rise and fall of Sam Meffire, the first Black police officer in the former East Germany. Son of a white mother and a Cameroonian student, he posed as “the Saxon” for an advertising campaign by the Sächsische Zeitung newspaper in the early 1990s, while Heinz Eggert, Saxony’s Minister of the Interior at the time, liked to make public appearances with him. But Meffire resigned from the police force to set up a security firm and later turned to crime, with the Dresden Regional Court eventually sentencing him to nine years in jail in 1996. Dreckfresser does not offer any explanations. It centres on the eloquent Sam Meffire, but the filmmaker also talks to his mother, former colleagues and people working in the media. Their perspectives vary, contradicting or reinforcing each other, which is one reason why the film triggered a lot of debate at certain festivals. “I’m not into documentaries that try to tell the truth. That’s not possible because film is something that is made,” commented the director at the 2001 Berlinale Forum.

by Branwen Okpako
with Sam Njankouo Meffire Germany 2000 German 75’ Colour Documentary form

With

Sam Njankouo Meffire

Crew

Director	Branwen Okpako
Written by	Branwen Okpako
Cinematography	Susanne Schüle
Editing	Calle Overweg, Bettina Blickwede, Gilda Rosskamp
Sound	Dirk Niemeier
Assistant Director	Christina Schachtschabel
Commissioning Editor	Jörg Schneider
Co-Production	ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel Mainz, Deutschland

Produced by

Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)

Branwen Okpako

Born in 1969 in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied political science and later film, and works as a writer and director. Her film Die Geschichte der Auma Obama (2011) received numerous awards. Dreckfresser was shown at the Berlinale Forum in 2001, and Fluch der Medea at Forum Expanded in 2014. Branwen Okpako is Associate Professor at UC Davis.

Filmography

1995 Landing; 11 min. 1999 LoveLoveLiebe; 10 min. 2000 Dreckfresser; 75 min. 2003 Tal der Ahnungslosen; 85 min. 2011 Die Geschichte der Auma Obama; 79 min. 2014 Fluch der Medea; 43 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022