German mocu-mentary depicts senior citizen revolt
Two veteran film-makershave confronted Germany’s troubled health care and pension systems,throwing themselves into a sensitive debate that many political leadershave shied away from. With governments apparently reluctantto get to grips with the political time-bombs, film-makers ReginaZiegler and Dieter Wedel are helping to force the topics into thespotlight with separate controversial television feature movies. Chancellor Angela Merkel and otherpoliticians often talk of “demographic developments” to try to explainaway problems in pensions and health care. But the population isshrinking, health care is becoming unaffordable for some and thepension system is under-funded. Ziegler, 62, and Wedel, 64, have usedfiction to hammer home the point that Germany, once one of the world’srichest nations, faces what they believe are health and pension crises. “The political leaders are afraid tobe honest,” Wedel said in an interview with Reuters ahead of hisFebruary film “Mein Alter Freund Fritz” (My Old Friend Fritz) thattakes a scathing look at profit-hungry hospitals and doctors. “It’s unfortunate that there is somuch cowardice and ducking away from problems,” added Wedel, who wroteand directed the 99-minute, 2.4 million-euro ($3.11 million) film forZDF television. Ziegler’s 135-minute science-fictionfilm “Aufstand der Alten” (Uprising of the Old People) is a fauxdocumentary-style production set in 2030. More than 10 million viewerssaw it on ZDF last week and it sparked widespread debate in Germany. In the film, most senior citizens are on the brink of starvation with minimal pensions and almost no health care. A journalist played by BettinaZimmermann is investigating the mysterious death of an elderly rebelleader and “looks back” at the uprising’s roots, discovering emptypromises by leaders about pensions and a failure to fix the problems inthe past. The film has upset viewers, manyunable to distinguish fact from fiction. One retired political leader,Kurt Biedenkopf, said “Uprising of the Old People” is a belated wake-upcall. “If films like these were made 15years ago, we wouldn’t have wasted as much time and wouldn’t now beworrying about the disaster we’re heading for,” said Biedenkopf,formerly a leader in Merkel’s Christian Democrats and premier of Saxonystate.