Liberators Take Liberties, part 1
‘BeFreier und Befreite’, GER 1992, directed by Helke Sander, 107 min, with English subtitles (SHD and AD), rating: 12
Documentary film
This film is still regarded as a milestone in the recognition of sexual violence as a war crime. It is based on years of research into the mass rapes committed by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. In 200 minutes, divided into two parts, director Helke Sander presents concrete statistics on the extent of these violent crimes for the first time. She interviews survivors, former Soviet soldiers, and children born from rape, splicing their statements with material from archives. She also avoids an emotional presentation of the subject matter to rule out revanchist interpretations.
The film is available with SDH for the hearing impaired and AD for the visually impaired (in German).