The special relationship between Film Movement and Bond/360 continues with the joint DVD release of the 2016 documentary "Karl Marx City." Like the recent (reviewed) joint release "Gun Runners," "Marx" is an intriguing true story that screams for a big-budget docudrama.
Filmmaker Petra Epperlein and her partner-in-celluloid Michael Tucker present a real-life political thriller in documenting Petra delving into the past of her deceased father following his 1999 suicide. This black-and-white film stays true to the Cold War-era subject matter by making most things seem highly bureaucratic and bleak.
The intrigue enters the picture regarding Petra having grown up in the titular East German "Utopia" and the evidence of the involvement of Dad in the East German secret police force known as the Stasi.
The Stasi takes center stage in the form of copious vintage surveillance footage, even more scenes of the extensive records in the former Stasi headquarters that now houses the archives of that organization, and of the documentation of the training of officers and the use of a huge army of informants. Stating that this is the stuff of which your worst Orwellian nightmares are made lacks any hyperbole.
Team Petra caps this off with an extensive interview with a former Stasi agent, who is the father of a childhood friend. The stories of this man verify everything that commonly is known about that organization. These accounts show the extent to which Big Brother is watching and equally illustrate that anyone who is approached to become an informant is much better off agreeing to do so at the outset; the lesson here is that that German organization shows the futility of resistance. It is even more distressing that all this is that most of the populace accepts this as the norm.
The aforementioned indications that Dad is at least an informant and that that activity plays a role in his decision to end his own life prompts much of the aforementioned digging; this leads to validating the nature of propaganda that there is the story of the other side, your pespective, and the truth. Much of the exceptional power of "Marx" stems from the truth being much more incredible than the other two accounts. This reveal further perfectly reflects the dystopia of East Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and provides modern-day people that much more reason to not trust anyone.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Marx" is strongly encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter.
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