Log in
Log in to use the My Festival Planner feature.
Please note:
Due to a database changeover, it is no longer possible to log in with an account from previous Berlinale editions. Please create a new account.
Using the icons in the programme you can create your individual festival schedule and subscribe to the iCal feed.
Log in
Log in to use the My Favourites feature.
Please note:
Due to a database changeover, it is no longer possible to log in with an account from previous Berlinale editions. Please create a new account.
Use the icons in the programme to create a list of your favourites.
Das falsche Wort
The Lie
The voice of evidence and accusation speaking off-screen is insistent, precise and unyielding. It belongs to Melanie Spitta, the child of survivors of Sinti persecution during the Nazi era. In The Lie, Spitta holds the “thread of truth”, as her co-director Katrin Seybold puts it, in this first coherent portrayal of the genocide of Germany’s Sinti population. Reconstructed on the basis of unpublished “police files and photos of racial researchers, documents of total registration.” Survivors of the camps open up to Spitta and speak of terrible things. Not least about how post-war society treated them, the few who survived: “The courts believed the perpetrators, not us, the victims.” Everything about this treatment was wrong, there were no “reparations.” The more calmly Spitta speaks, the clearer it becomes how much strength it costs her. And, in turn, the louder the brutal injustice is proclaimed to the world. This digitally restored version comes from the Filmmuseum München under the supervision of Stefan Drößler and Carmen Spitta, produced by Film Shift GmbH as part of the BKM, Länder and FFA film heritage funding programme.