IDFA 2005
De terrorist Hans-Joachim Klein
Hans-Joachim Klein: My Life as a Terrorist
Alexander Oey
Netherlands
2005
70 min
World Premiere
Although in hindsight Hans-Joachim Klein feels misled, he takes full responsibility for his deeds. On behalf of the Revolutionary Cells, led by the notorious terrorist Carlos, Klein took the assembled ministers hostage at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna in December 1975. Three people got killed, Klein got seriously wounded. The kidnappers escaped - in a plane with a few hostages - via Algiers. Subsequently, Klein decided to turn his back on terrorism. From then on, he hid from both the police and his ex-comrades. Only in 1998 did he turn himself in. Six years later, Klein was released, and today he lives in the countryside of Normandy. Every day, he continues to live with the choices he made in his fervent militant years. After a troubled childhood, Klein found a "new family" in the left-wing scene in Frankfurt. Klein was none too bright, he admits, so they won him over pretty easily. After the action in Vienna, it dawned upon him how idiotic, criminal and underhanded it had been. Archival footage supports his account, which examines an idealistic young man's decent into violence and back.
Credits
World Sales
Films Transit International Inc.
Films Transit International Inc.
Screening copy
Submarine
Submarine
Director
Involved TV Channel
VPRO
VPRO
Cinematography
Editing