Directed & Producer by Matthias Leupold
Cinematography by Iulia-Roxana Enciu, Rafael Hennig & Christina Voigt
Featuring Thomas Raufeisen
In 1979, sixteen-year-old Thomas Raufeisen believes his family is traveling from Hanover to East Berlin to visit his grandfather. Only after arriving does he learn the truth: his father Armin has been working secretly for East Germany's Ministry for State Security (Stasi) for many years. His cover in West Germany is blown, and the family will not be returning home.
Told through Thomas Raufeisen's memories and previously unseen family letters, photographs, court documents, Stasi records and original audio recordings from Armin's trial, THE FUTURE, WASTE AND ARID reconstructs the destruction of a family caught between personal loyalty and political ideology.
More than a Cold War spy story, the film is an intimate account of a father's sense of duty, his disillusionment and his attempt to undo the consequences of his own decisions — and of a family that paid a heavy price for them and was ultimately torn apart.