Who's Afraid of the Bogeyman

The turn of the year 1988/89. Helke Misselwitz observes the everyday life of the coal business on Falkplatz in the Prenzlauer Berg district of East Berlin. Nobody suspects that life in the neighborhood will change radically over the next two years. The small family business has existed since 1922 and, despite socialism, has remained private. It only had to move because the original company headquarters at Gleimstraße 57 was even closer to the border with West Berlin than it is now. Carrying coal may be a man's job, but the head of the company in this generation is a woman: Renate Uhle, quick-witted and surprisingly thoughtful. The film observes her and the coal carriers at work. A job that is not held in particularly high esteem by society. Helke Misselwitz watches and listens with great respect and affection, and in doing so, gets very close to her protagonists. This is how she manages to capture the way of life of a world that no one knows is on the verge of extinction. Just like Misselwitz's earlier classic documentary WINTER ADÉ, this portrait of a microcosm thrives on the remarkable, uninhibited openness of its protagonists. WER FÜRCHTET SICH VORM SCHWARZEN MANN is unjustly a lesser-known work by the director, but it is extremely rewarding to discover.