Volker Koepp

Tracing biographical lines, Volker Koepp steps into his oeuvre, rich in encounters. Returning to Lithuania, Moldova and Chernivtsi, he looks back and brings things up to date, as the war against Ukraine becomes a determining element of the present. Epic.

Open details →

Meetings with readers, acquaintances and contemporaries of writer Uwe Johnson at the places where he lived. Volker Koepp, who is also from Pomerania, looks for Johnson’s sophisticated literary voice in the landscapes of the region they both stem from.

Open details →

Following Landstück (2016), Volker Koepp's documentary Seestück is about the magical, natural setting of the Baltic Sea, its coasts and its people – including fishermen, seamen, scientists and young people on both the Baltic and Scandinavian shores. Conversations meander from Caspar David Friedrich to Copernicus, Rousseau and Kant, or simply life itself. Present concerns address the sea's threatened ecosystem and political frictions among the neighbouring countries. One universal truth applies for the small Baltic Sea too: The landscape is a window to the world.

Open details →

Documentary by Volker Koepp.

Open details →

The end moraines of the Uckermark have kept Volker Koepp busy for decades. Following the socio-historical "Uckermark", he devotes himself in "Landstück" even more intensively to conveying the sensory experience of this sparsely populated, ecologically fascinating region between Berlin and the Baltic Sea.

Open details →

Volker Koepp revisits locations and people from his earlier documentaries in the wide Eastern European region of Sarmatia.

Open details →

Documentary by Volker Koepp.

Open details →

Under the artistic direction of director Andreas Dresen, 20 renowned documentary filmmakers, experienced television writers, and teams tell stories about the country and its people. The teams filmed at 20 different locations between June and August 2010 under the same production conditions: four days of filming, one week of editing.

Open details →

In his film "Berlin-Stettin", well-known documentary film director Volker Koepp embarks on a journey to the places of his own past: Born in 1944 in Stettin (now the Polish city of Szczecin) and grown up in Berlin-Karlshorst, Koepp has again and again met people and found places located between the two cities that he turned into the protagonists of his films – in Brandenburg, in Mecklenburg, and in Pomerania. Now, he once again returns to these places and finds out that his own biography overlaps with the biographies of his found again protagonists as well as with the history of this region. During his search for traces, Koepp at the same time finds new people, new regions, and new themes that are also worth becoming a part of Koepp′s narration.

Open details →

24-hour television documentary about Berlin and its inhabitants, reporting in real time on the everyday lives of more than 50 protagonists from a wide range of professions, social classes, religions and ethnicities.

Open details →

Documentary about the region next to the river Memel.

Open details →

The film tells the story of the East Prussian landscape and its inhabitants. At one time Germans, Poles, Lithuanians and Jews lived here alongside and with one another. After World War II and the expulsion of Germans by Stalin, the Prussian province turned into a Russian enclave. Volker Koepp’s fourth film about the Kaliningrad region is dedicated to the generation, born in the '90s, and familiar with the Soviet Union and East Prussia only from school books. Parents and grandparents who were forcefully resettled to where they are now have never really felt at home. In the meantime they have hopelessly succumbed to unemployment and alcohol. Their children can only rely on themselves. Older siblings look after the younger ones, they play with what lies around, and the girl Ljuda can’t wait to finally turn eighteen, to be able to take her brothers home from the orphanage. The film has much confidence in the children. But what will become of them?

Open details →

In early 1945, the mother Elisabeth Paetzold flees from the Red Army from West Prussia towards the west with the two oldest of her four sons. Taking all the children at the same time seems too dangerous to her, so she leaves her two youngest in the hope of catching them up later, in the care of grandparents. In post-war Poland, she sets out in search of them, but she no longer succeeds in uniting them all. Only now, in this documentary, a reunion takes place. And there are five stories about the common family history audible that is so incredible, but not rare...

Open details →

A documentary about Masuria, a province in the northeast of Poland, which is probably the most renowned part of former East-Prussia. Albeit a recent boom in tourism, the sparsely populated region still remains one of the poorest regions in Europe. The impressively photographed film reflects upon the eventful history of this land: It portrays farmers, who struggle to work the barren land; fishermen, who fight for their existence, and Ukrainians, who were once forced to relocate and now return to their old home in the East.

Open details →

In his documentary film, Volker Koepp portrays the picturesque Polish region of Pomerania. But although the region appears to be idyllic, its inhabitants are struggling with big problems. The villages and cities of Pomerania that traditionally live from agriculture are hit by unemployment rates of up to 75% after the meltdown of the state farms. While most of the young people leave the region, some of them take their chances and start fresh – for instance, a young couple that tries to rebuild an agricultural farm with the help of EU funding. Furthermore, older inhabitants, including a spry 90-year old retiree from the Uckermark region who grew up in Pomerania, tell stories about the region′s eventful past.

Open details →

"Frankfurter Tor" is the name of a huge parking lot for trucks on the A12 Berlin-Frankfurt freeway. For many years, this asphalted spot in the Mark Brandenburg served to pre-regulate border traffic. It is named after the Frankfurter Tor in Berlin. Thousands of trucks passed through this border every day, and over 700,000 drivers got off here every year and waited to continue their journey towards Poland.

Open details →

Chernivtsi, an out-of-the-way city in the middle of Europe. It was once part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as the capital of the crown province of Bukowina. People of many different nationalities, languages, and cultures lived here together: Ukrainians, Romanians, Germans, Poles, Huzulians. Almost half of the population of Chernivtsi, once amounting to 150,000 inhabitants, were Jews. The southern part of Bukowina is now part of Romania, the north, with Czernowitz/Chernivtsi, belongs to the Ukraine. Six years ago Volker Koepp made his film Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann there. Dieses Jahr in Chernivtsi returns there with emigrants and their descendants.

Open details →

Volker Koepp returns to the Brandenburg Marches, where many of his films were made. Uckermark describes the coexistence of the various eras using the stories and lives of the local people. They are farmers and returning noblemen, men and women hoping that short-term job-creation schemes will lead to meaningful work, a theatre director whom the Uckermark reminds of the past.

Open details →

The "Curonian Spit" is a 98 kilometre long sand dune peninsula that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The width of the spit between the lagoon′s beach and the beach of the Baltic Sea often amounts to no more than several hundred metres. In this film, documentary filmmaker Volker Koepp portrays this unique region that in its history was again and again subjected to shifting borders and the resulting social upheavals due to its geographical location between Germany and Russia.

Open details →

In the west of Ukraine, not far from the border to Romania, there is a faraway European city: Chernivtsi. It was once the centre of Jewish culture in the Bukowina, a border area characterized over centuries by a multi-cultural mixture of peoples. Here, Ukrainians, Poles, Romanians, Germans and Jews lived side by side. Volker Koepp’s film focuses on Mr. Zwilling and Mrs. Zuckermann, two of the last few Jews born in the old Chernivtsi/Czernowitz. They share a friendship but also their love for the German language. Mr. Zwilling visits 90-year-old Mrs. Zuckermann daily in the early hours of the evening. They talk about old times, about shared events, about politics and literature and the worries of everyday life.

Open details →

Shortly behind the once East Prussian, now Russian town of Tilsit, the Memel splits into a delta. The widest arms of this delta, the Ruß and Gilge, finally flow into the Curonian Lagoon. The river landscape is characterized by high soil moisture. Cultivation was only possible thanks to a complicated drainage system. The Gilge was also an important waterway. Today, this drainage system is decaying, the Gilge is silting up and the landscape is being renaturalized. The old villages are falling into disrepair due to a lack of money and life is characterized by increasing poverty. We meet the inhabitants, such as the farmer Anatoli, who came here from Siberia and built a new house on the foundations of a German house, or old Anastasia, who can still remember living with the Germans until they were expelled.

Open details →

Open details →

Seventh and last Wittstock film.

Open details →

Documentary about a farmer's wife in former East Prussia.

Open details →

In this documentary Volker Koepp shows part of the history of Prussia. He begins 700 years ago with the land of the Pruzzen situated between the rivers Weichsel and Memel and proceeds the development of the state.

Open details →

Documentary about the impact of uranium mining in East Germany.

Open details →

Open details →

Sixth Wittstock film. This Wittstock film, co-produced by the French broadcaster La Sept, begins in 1990. Koepp shows the consequences of reunification and the economic and social upheavals in East Germany. The state-owned knitwear factory is privatized. Edith is the first of the film's protagonists to lose her job. She helped bring about the changes and left the SED, the GDR's ruling party, in September 1989. The three women agree that things could not continue as they were. Although they were all members of the SED and the upheavals hit them hard. Edith is in her mid-30s, as is "Stubsi," alias Elsbeth. Elsbeth is one of a group of 17 out of 80 workers who are allowed to keep their jobs. For now. Renate is laid off shortly after her 50th birthday and after 36 years of working in textile production. One of her daughters moved to the West before the end of the GDR. A good decision, Renate thinks.

Open details →

Open details →

In late 1990 times are changing in Zehdenick, Brandenburg: Russian troops are leaving, the German Reunification brings euphoria and new hope, but unemployment rises steadily.

Open details →

Volker Koepp revisits Zehdenick and Grüneberg, East Germany. People are struggling with the new political and economical conditions shortly before the German Reunification.

Open details →

Spring 1988: a cinematic chronicle of the small town of Zehdenick an der Havel in the Mark Brandenburg. Brickworks have determined the rhythm of life in Zehdenick for exactly 100 years. Seasoned brickmakers and young skilled workers speak frankly and critically about their working and living conditions and their futile efforts to improve them. The film is the first part of the Märkische Trilogie, which Volker Koepp shot "over the course of time about a brickworks in the small town of Zehdenick in the Mark Brandenburg. The very sensitively and atmospherically designed film was withheld by the GDR censors of the time. A depressing report about outdated production methods and disillusioned people."

Open details →

Volker Koepp documents life in the Dorotheenstadt in Berlin-Mitte, which was called "Feuerland" in the 19th century.

Open details →

A documentary portrait of the city of Memleben in Saxony-Anhalt, counterpointing ancient medieval history and contemporary industrial reality.

Open details →

In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Four years later—the Islamic calendar's year 1362—, director Volker Koepp visited Kabul and neighboring provinces. Koepp met a cross-section of people, such as soldiers, intellectuals, kids, and nomads, and with sensitive intensity told stories of their daily lives in the turmoil of an “undeclared war.” This travelogue, which was undertaken with the GDR’s consent, took a political risk because it expresses Koepp’s doubt that conflicts can be solved through military invention.

Open details →

Wittstock an der Dosse is located in the German state Mark Brandenburg, apx. 90 kilometers from Berlin. Since 1974 Volker Koepp visited the town several times to examine life of the female workers in the textile industry. He interviewed them about their work, spare-time, thoughts and feelings. Three of them were questioned repeatedly for a long-time overview. This is the outcome of 10 years of Koepp's work. Written by Tom Zoerner

Open details →

Meetings with readers, acquaintances and contemporaries of writer Uwe Johnson at the places where he lived. Volker Koepp, who is also from Pomerania, looks for Johnson’s sophisticated literary voice in the landscapes of the region they both stem from.

Open details →

Following Landstück (2016), Volker Koepp's documentary Seestück is about the magical, natural setting of the Baltic Sea, its coasts and its people – including fishermen, seamen, scientists and young people on both the Baltic and Scandinavian shores. Conversations meander from Caspar David Friedrich to Copernicus, Rousseau and Kant, or simply life itself. Present concerns address the sea's threatened ecosystem and political frictions among the neighbouring countries. One universal truth applies for the small Baltic Sea too: The landscape is a window to the world.

Open details →

The film tells the story of the East Prussian landscape and its inhabitants. At one time Germans, Poles, Lithuanians and Jews lived here alongside and with one another. After World War II and the expulsion of Germans by Stalin, the Prussian province turned into a Russian enclave. Volker Koepp’s fourth film about the Kaliningrad region is dedicated to the generation, born in the '90s, and familiar with the Soviet Union and East Prussia only from school books. Parents and grandparents who were forcefully resettled to where they are now have never really felt at home. In the meantime they have hopelessly succumbed to unemployment and alcohol. Their children can only rely on themselves. Older siblings look after the younger ones, they play with what lies around, and the girl Ljuda can’t wait to finally turn eighteen, to be able to take her brothers home from the orphanage. The film has much confidence in the children. But what will become of them?

Open details →

Documentary by Jan Sebening and Daniel Sponsel.

Open details →

Shortly behind the once East Prussian, now Russian town of Tilsit, the Memel splits into a delta. The widest arms of this delta, the Ruß and Gilge, finally flow into the Curonian Lagoon. The river landscape is characterized by high soil moisture. Cultivation was only possible thanks to a complicated drainage system. The Gilge was also an important waterway. Today, this drainage system is decaying, the Gilge is silting up and the landscape is being renaturalized. The old villages are falling into disrepair due to a lack of money and life is characterized by increasing poverty. We meet the inhabitants, such as the farmer Anatoli, who came here from Siberia and built a new house on the foundations of a German house, or old Anastasia, who can still remember living with the Germans until they were expelled.

Open details →

Meetings with readers, acquaintances and contemporaries of writer Uwe Johnson at the places where he lived. Volker Koepp, who is also from Pomerania, looks for Johnson’s sophisticated literary voice in the landscapes of the region they both stem from.

Open details →

Following Landstück (2016), Volker Koepp's documentary Seestück is about the magical, natural setting of the Baltic Sea, its coasts and its people – including fishermen, seamen, scientists and young people on both the Baltic and Scandinavian shores. Conversations meander from Caspar David Friedrich to Copernicus, Rousseau and Kant, or simply life itself. Present concerns address the sea's threatened ecosystem and political frictions among the neighbouring countries. One universal truth applies for the small Baltic Sea too: The landscape is a window to the world.

Open details →

Documentary by Volker Koepp.

Open details →

The end moraines of the Uckermark have kept Volker Koepp busy for decades. Following the socio-historical "Uckermark", he devotes himself in "Landstück" even more intensively to conveying the sensory experience of this sparsely populated, ecologically fascinating region between Berlin and the Baltic Sea.

Open details →

Volker Koepp revisits locations and people from his earlier documentaries in the wide Eastern European region of Sarmatia.

Open details →