MEDIATHEK

Berlin, 1961. The newly erected Berlin Wall has fractured the city. Put up overnight without warning, residents awoke to find themselves divided from their families, friends and livelihoods. In the following years thousands of refugees would attempt to escape over the wall into West Berlin. Set one month after the wall's construction, Schutzwall tells the story of two sisters who meet either side to wait for nightfall and their chance to be reunited. We follow their conversation as it meanders between a variety of topics including: day to day life in Berlin, growing up during the war and their hopes and fears for the future. Taking place in real time, Schutzwall uses this pivotal moment to provide a short window into lives of these two sisters. Staged in traverse the audience are divided either side of the wall, like the sisters, unable to see what is happening on the other side.