Enemy Engagement
A former GDR dissident confronts the Stasi informer whose betrayal led to his imprisonment — an intimate portrait of two men and the workings of a dictatorship.
“A documentary like Feindberührung has been long overdue.”
Filmdienst
“An honest, emotional exchange that goes into painful detail.”
AZ Essenheim
“The depth of the emotional wounds comes across with striking intensity.”
Frankenpost
Production & Broadcasters
Feindberührung was produced by Context TV (Berlin) and Bachelier Film (Cologne)for ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel and France 3, with support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Filmstiftung NRW.
Festival Premiere & Awards
The film premiered at the prestigious Hof Film Festivaland went on to be screened at film festivals across Germany and internationally. It won the Audience Award in Mainz and received the PRIX EUROPA for Best Documentary Feature.
Sparking Debate
Feindberührung sparked intense public discussion through Q&As with the protagonists, the filmmaker, the audiences, historians, and Roland Jahn (the head of the Stasi Files Agency), opening debate on Stasi collaboration in Germany.
Impact Until Today
The film was acquired by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and continues to be widely used in schools, adult education, and cinema screenings.
Broadcast & International Reach
France 3 aired a 60-minute version of Feindberührung, entitled Dossier Stasi Hans Kramer, broadcast in France to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and nominated for a major European history prize.
The Book
Feindberührung is based on 18,000 pages of Stasi filesand expanded in Heike Bachelier’s book Ein ganz normaler Feind, with a foreword by Roland Jahn published by Droemer/Knaur.
Other films by Heike Bachelier
heike@trufflepigfilms.co.uk