Against forgetting: THE WITNESS starts in German cinemas

Bernd Michael Lade with THE WITNESS is touring and in cinemas from Thursday, 2 March 2023. The film’s world premiere at the 56th Hof International Film Festival was much discussed and acclaimed by audiences. Germany, shortly after the Second World War: As a prisoner in Buchenwald, Lichtenburg, Esterwegen and Flossenbürg concentration camps for many years, Carl Schrade experienced Nazi atrocities at first hand. Now the former jewellery dealer is to testify as the prosecution’s key witness in a court of law, seeking to put his tormentors behind bars.

Bernd Michael Lade, past member of the GDR punk band “planlos”, is both director and leading actor in this fascinating intellectual experiment. On the basis of real court transcripts, Lade has succeeded in creating “...a no-frills movie against forgetting, pared down to the essentials” (NDR).