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In this documentary, begun just as travel restrictions between East and West Germany were being eased, the filmmaker tries to track down the cause of the progressive weakening of the formerly powerful East German goverment's hold onto power. Was it some convoluted plot by the Russians? Was it a result of deliberate acts by that country's political leadership? Stupidity? Capitulation to the West? Conducting the interviews himself, the noted anti-Nazi documentarian continually peppers his subjects with rude and probing questions, provoking in at least one case an outraged outburst against him. Despite one reviewer's cheers at this point, it becomes clear that East Germany's squirming leaders were at least as clueless as anyone else about the phenomena which were leading to the dissipation of their power.