Screening and post-screening discussion with director Sandra Prechtel
PFAUEN
SCREENING: 31.10.2026
25 years ago, Einar Schleef passed away. In a new documentary, Sandra Prechtel portrays the exceptional theater maker and total artist whose influence on German-language directorial theater continues to resonate to this day.
Synopsis
Einar Schleef was a theater maker, writer, painter, and photographer—a total artist who found a home in neither Germany, making him a precise chronicler of German reality. He dug deep into the abysses of history, exposing the trap of one's own body and history, while constantly attempting to escape.
Born in the GDR, he celebrated early scandalous successes before fleeing to the West, where—after a period of depression—he revolutionized spoken theater. His work tackled war, xenophobia, and the persistent divide between East and West. A station drama guides us through his life: from his youth in Sangerhausen to his lonely death at the turn of the millennium. Schleef demands rediscovery: he shakes us awake, holds up a mirror to society, and captures the essence of German rootlessness.
