Denkmal-Film Verhaag


Restrisiko




Residual Risk

or the Arrogance of Power

a film by Bertram Verhaag

93 min

Please note: this film is only available in German!

 

Behind the barbed wire of the security area at Wackersdorf, Bavaria, building work for the planned plutonium reprocessing plant is in full swing. The facility will soon be ready to start reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Meanwhile, the Bavarian Ministry for the Environment, the authority responsible for the project, announces a public meeting in Neunburg vorm Wald to discuss the final seal of approval for the plant. The 881,000 people who have submitted written protests are invited to a small hall in this remote village (population: 8,000). Seated on a raised platform are the men from the government licensing authority. To their right are the men from the company operating the plant; to their left, the men from the Board for Technical Inspection and other independent experts. Guards are on hand to protect these men from the people in the crowded hall.

This film documents the way in which this show of democracy provides cover as the last remnants of true democracy are swept away –  and, with them, any remaining threat to the plans of the pro-nuclear lobby. It exposes how those in power arrogantly – and in full accordance with legislation – ignore the well-founded fears and objections of citizens and scientists. It is a historical document on nuclear reprocessing, nuclear energy, and democracy.

 


Prädikat "Besonders wertvoll", Filmbewertungsstelle Wiesbaden 1989 -- Peace Film Award: Lobende Erwähnung, Berlin 1989 -- Hauptpreis Ökomedia, Freiburg 1989 -- Förderpreis der Stadt Freiburg 1989 -- Nominiert als deutscher Beitrag zum Europäischen Filmpreis 1989
   
Buch & Regie Bertram Verhaag Kamera Claus Strigel - Waldemar Hauschild
- Friedrich Klütsch - Thomas Wilke Schnitt Matthias Bauer Ton Liane Grimm
Musik Ulrich Bassenge und Wolfgang Neumann Produktionsleitung E. Katharina Ritter
In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Psychologie und Friedensforschung
© 1988 DENKmal-Film Verhaag GmbH