''Black Box BRD'' is a 2001 German

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

written and directed by

Andres Veiel Andres Veiel (born 16 October 1959) is a German film and theater director and writer. Biography From 1982 to 1988, Veiel studied Psychology at the Free University of Berlin and attended the director's class of Krzysztof Kieślowski at the Inde ...

. The film deals with

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

politics of the 1970s and 1980s, a period marked by turmoil and the highly publicized activities of the left-wing terrorist group known as the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

(RAF). The film focuses on the lives and deaths of

Alfred Herrhausen Alfred Herrhausen (30 January 1930 in Essen – 30 November 1989 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe) was a German banker and the Chairman of Deutsche Bank, who was assassinated in 1989. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group a ...

, a prominent banker and chairman of the

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

who was assassinated in 1989, and

Wolfgang Grams Wolfgang Grams (March 6, 1953 – June 27, 1993) was a member of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German far-left terrorist organisation. Life Wolfgang Grams was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. His parents, Werner and Ruth Grams, were expelled fr ...

, member of RAF who was a suspect in the attack on Herrhausen and who later shot himself in the head while being chased by the German police in 1993. A number of relatives, friends, and colleagues of both men were interviewed for the film. In Germany the film was released in May 2001, and then re-released in September 2002. It was screened at a number of festivals and won several awards in 2001 and 2002, including the 2002

German Film Award for Best Documentary Film The German Film Award for Best Documentary Film () is the award given to the best feature-length cinema documentary produced with majoritarian German funding. The current category was introduced in 2000, although numerous similar categories were ...

and the 2001

European Film Award The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European film, cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which th ...

. In the United States the film was shown on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, retitled as ''Black Box Germany''.

Awards

References

External links

Official website
* * 2001 films 2001 documentary films German documentary films Films directed by Andres Veiel Documentary films about terrorism Documentary films about politics Red Army Faction European Film Awards winners (films) 2000s German-language films 2000s German films {{poli-documentary-film-stub