Synopsis

Against the backdrop of the 1974 Guillaume affair, this documentary follows Matthias Brandt and Pierre Boom/Guillaume, the sons of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and East German spy Guenter Guillaume. Decades after the scandal, the two men revisit childhood memories, family relationships, public expectations, and the lasting effects of fathers whose political identities overshadowed their private lives.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was produced nearly 30 years after the Guillaume affair, shifting attention from the famous political figures to the personal memories of their sons.

• Pierre Boom was born Pierre Guillaume and changed his name after leaving East Germany, reportedly at the urging of the Ministry for State Security.

• Filming took place in three blocks totaling 24 shooting days, from February to early June 2004. The staged location sequences were shot on Super 16 film, while interviews and direct observational material were recorded on DigiBeta video.

• Director Doris Metz deliberately used cinematic techniques usually associated with fiction films, including dolly movements and crane shots. The approach was intended to create a theatrical documentary rather than a conventional archive-based television report.

• One important filming location was the former Stasi cinema in Berlin-Lichtenberg. During the shoot, Pierre Boom watched a propaganda film featuring his parents there.

• The production team eventually located a complete VHS copy of the Stasi training film "Auftrag erfuellt," after initially finding only fragments and incomplete archival information.

• The film premiered in competition at the Leipzig International Film Festival on October 7, 2005, before its German theatrical release on November 10, 2005.

• The production was a collaboration between PanEuropeanPictures, ZDF, and Arte, with support from the Filmstiftung NRW and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.