Films by Lutz Pehnert

Germany 2026, 100 min
by Lutz Pehnert, Ferdinand Hübner

“Scherbenland” tells the story of a band whose first album began with the question, “Why do I feel so lousy?”—and of a city that was transformed by their songs. In the early 1970s, Kreuzberg became a testing ground for a counterculture. With songs like “Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht,” “Alles verändert sich,” and “Der Traum ist aus,” Ton Steine Scherben gave a voice to a generation. Their music accompanied squatting, pol

Germany 2026, 123 min
by Lutz Pehnert

As Erich Honecker’s “crown prince,” Egon Krenz rose through the ranks of the SED; eventually, he became head of state of the GDR. However, he led the country for only 50 days; after reunification, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for his shared responsibility for the deaths of those who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Since his release in 2003, he has lived in Dierhagen on the Baltic Sea. Official, rising star, apparatchik, bigwig, figure of hatred, thug

Germany 2022, 107 min
by Lutz Pehnert

A biography set in East and West Berlin in which singer-songwriter Bettina Wegner, born in 1947, sings about life in the GDR, her feelings of being uprooted in West Berlin, and looks back with humour and honesty on a life of resistance. [72 Berlinale]

Germany 2021, 540 min
by Tim Evers, Lutz Pehnert, Thomas Zimolong, Artem Demenok, Gabriele Denecke, Karoline Kleinert, Anna Bilger, Karin Reiss, Peter Scholl, Reinhard Joksch, Dagmar Wittmers

A Berlin chronicle of superlatives: six decades, from the 1950s to the 2000s, when Berlin is once again the capital of a united Germany. By using archival footage from both sides, news and interviews by former channel Freies Berlin, and material from GDR television, the series vividly displays everyday life in Berlin from both sides of the wall. The divided city shows a diverse picture: cosmopolitan city and quiet suburbs, international politics and everyday life, the scene for stories big and s

Germany 2018, 130 min
by Adama Ulrich, Lutz Pehnert, Matthias Ehlert

In a society that increasingly resists new ways of thinking and aesthetic transgressions, Frank Castorf calls theatre ‘the last partisan.’ As its director since the early 1990s, Castorf made the Berlin Volksbühne a place of the avant-garde.The film accompanies Castorf on his farewell production of ‘Faust’, while also providing a glimpse of the engine room of this theatre factory. Comrades-in-arms, including the actors Sophie Rois and Alexander Scheer, recall the theatre‘s unique work environmen