Director: Wieland Spieck
Year: 1985
Duration: 96 minutes
Category: Fiction Feature
Language: German- English with subtitles
Berlin, mid-1980s. "Westerners" Felix and Thomas from East Berlin live only a few kilometers apart – and yet in two different worlds. Between them lies the Berlin Wall, they can only see each other one day a week and only four or five hours a day. With their feelings towards each other, despair and pain grow with every forced evening separation. At some point, Thomas knows only one way out: fleeing the GDR, via Prague to the West, to Felix.
A film about love at a time when a wall separated friends, families and couples. Director Wieland Speck and his team had to shoot in the eastern part of Berlin partly with a hidden camera. They were rewarded with insights into a city that no longer exists – and with authenticity and rough beauty. 34 years after its creation, "Westler", a classic of queer cinema, is released in a digitally restored version on DVD.
