STAMMHEIM

Germany, 1986, 107 minutes.
Directed by Reinhard Hauff.

Stammheim won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival of 1986. It was adapted by writer Stefan Aust from the transcripts of the Baader Meinhoff Trial of 1975-77 (a case which lasted 192 days). The film is an excellent courtroom drama, highlighting each of the characters, their stances, their attitudes, the tension with the presiding judges.

The film was directed by activist Reinhardt Hauff (director of such films as Slow Attack). He highlights the personalities of the Baader Meinhoff gang, strengths and weaknesses. He dramatises their behaviour in the trial - and dramatises several scenes outside the courtroom which were based on diaries and evidence from warders. While the film has a particular point of view, it also serves as a fairly objective look at a German court case. However, Hauff wants to make the point that the political authorities wanted a 'Guilty' verdict without possibility of appeal. There was bias in the proceedings for political purposes. In retrospect, the film is able to highlight the injustice done in terms of Germany's civil law.

The film also has the background of Germany from the '30s to the '70s, the move from the adoption of National Socialism to the experience of the war, to the post-war boom and the student revolutions of the late '60s. The film is always absorbing - but will naturally be controversial for audiences who have strong views about terrorism and court proceedings.

1. The work of Reinhardt Hauff? His position in the German film industry? his political commitments?

2. Audience knowledge of the Baader Meinhoff gang? Their origins? Activities in Germany? Terrorism and the reaction of the German government? The background of German history, the 1930s, the war, post-war boom, student protest? The experience of violent protest? Terrorism? The possibilities of proper processes? Causes? Reasons for government clampdown? The court case as an example of contemporary justice?

3. The world, understanding of the Baader Meinhoff gang - as filtered through media reports, in reaction to world terrorism? How accurate was the general public's knowledge of the persons, their activities? Does the film make a difference?

4. The use of the transcripts for writing of the screenplay? The inventing of several sequences based on fact and reports? The processes of selecting particular events from the transcripts for dramatising? For objectivity? A committed point of view? Bias?

5. How well did the film work dramatically: the slow tracking of the exteriors of the prison? The sequences in the cells? The courtroom and the fluid camera movement? Particular focal points?