30 years after reunification, women from former large industrial companies talk about themselves and their work

Germany immediately after reunification. The second great wave of redundancies has reached the East. Women from the former large industrial companies of the GDR talk about themselves and the personal independence they have gained through their work with surprising naturalness. Self-confident and emancipated, they share their astonishment that suddenly only men are supposed to do their jobs. They also talk about the utopias of the past that no longer exist today. We also see footage of their day-to-day work in industrial buildings and brown coal mines that have long since disappeared. The interviews have been preserved on old U-matic tapes from the stocks of the former Leipzig pirate radio station KANAL X.

Over 30 years later, Gerd Kroske ("SPK Komplex", "Striche ziehen") has recovered this film treasure from the archive and found the workers from back then. Like an experimental set-up, the old material is commented on and scrutinised anew by the women in split screen. "Stolz und Eigensinn" is a media encirclement that closes a gap and portrays women who have retained their pride and stubbornness to this day. What was once gained? What has been lost? What has happened?

A film by Gerd Kroske, Germany 2025, 113 minutes

Admission 5 Euro