Wittstock, Wittstock

In 1974, director Volker Koepp went to Wittstock, an old town in Brandenburg just northwest of Berlin, for the first time. He filmed the changes brought about by the construction of a huge textile factory. In his portrait of daily life, Koepp focussed on three women, Edith, Elsbeth and Renate, who were struggling with problems at work, got married and had children. In the nineties, Koepp returns to Wittstock to see what has become of them. The factory is now closed and the three women have been forced to turn over a new leaf. Elsbeth follows one retraining course after the other, Renate has been working as a chambermaid in a small hotel for the last five years and the once rebellious Edith has moved to Heilbronn, where she leads a secluded life. The entire documentary, Koepp strikes a light tone, thus managing to attain a balance between the tragic and humorous sides of the different stories.