26-year-old Valentina still lives with her parents. She has always put their welfare before her own needs. The two, on the other hand, keep harping on how clumsy and unambitious she is. The sensitive young woman finds reassurance in the artful crocheting of woollen blossoms and among the thousand-year-old cork oaks of the nature reserve surrounding her hometown. The small Sicilian town of Niscemi is of the highest global political importance: Since 2016, the US Navy has been operating a ground station with huge parabolic antennas here for their satellite communication system MUOS. The system also serves to locate Russian military in the Ukraine and turns the region into a potential target for attacks. The locals have been protesting for years. Due to the strong electromagnetic waves the health risks are enormous.
The remarkable sound design underlines the danger and conveys a sense of unease that grows with all the other threats: massive environmental destruction caused by intensive agriculture, drought, fires. Valentina is deeply shaken. Against her parents’ wishes, she takes part in anti-MUOS rallies, wants to become independent at last, drive a car, get a job. This tender story of emancipation is enchanting with its subtle narrative and dream-like interventions. Valentina will be remembered for a long time!

Pensioner Lehmann, folk artist Köppe, engineer Krahnstöver and the famous painter Willi Sitte: Four GDR citizens explain their motives and actions for solidarity with Vietnam. The emphasis is on the global nature of the protests against the war in the Far East, also and especially in Western countries, and therefore the system-spanning character of the movement. An appeal to the audience to get involved.

A typical workday at the East Berlin precinct 14, Brunnenstraße, near the Wall, at the “interface to imperialism,” as one of the officers puts it. At first, Heise and Badel are free to film unhindered: car patrols, deployments to escalating disputes, criminal charges of “decadent appearance,” missing person reports. The director and cameraman appear to be authorised by the Ministry of the Interior and are allowed to shoot without restrictions. When they are eventually required to show their papers, which turn out to be nothing more than ordinary identity cards, the misdirection is noticed: Shooting is stopped, the footage disappears in locked cabinets. The film premiered at the 25th Duisburger Filmwoche in 2001.