THE STATE I AM IN
DIE INNERE SICHERCHEIT



Germany, 2000, 106 min, color

For 15 years now the parents have been leading an underground existence, hiding among the anonymous tourists on the beaches of Portugal. They had broken a taboo: they had conceived a daughter. A girl who has never swapped clothes with her friends, never skipped classes in school, camped out at lakes, got drunk and broke off with her boyfriend in ice-cream parlours. A girl who is alone. The parents are just about to establish some sort of legal identity for themselves in Brazil, when a slight negligence causes everything to fall apart around them. And again they are on the run, which brings them back to Germany.

"For all its historical veracity, The State I Am In is less a political film than a study of a family in crisis - without identity (they have no surname, no papers, no official history), and lacking any place in the world. Petzold's film benefits from its inmate take on his country's troubled past (his co-writer Farocki was himself a prominent activist in the late 60s), its disenchanted view of Germany today, and its equally unsentimental look at family life and loyalties."