Rollercoaster
In Cinema
Rollercoaster / Achterbahn
Documentary, HD/35mm, 88 min.
Dir: Peter Dörfler
A production of Rohfilm/Berlin and strandfilm/Frankfurt - in coproduction with ZDF and in cooperation with ARTE
Premiere: Berlinale 2009, 08.02.2009, 19:30, CinemaxX3
Prize of the German film review 2010 – »Best documentary«.
Norbert Witte had a dream: he wanted to turn the Spreepark, an amusement park, which became famous in the GDR era under the name of Plänterwald, into the biggest fairground of the newly reunified Germany. Unfortunately the King of Carousels went bankrupt and settled to Peru with his family and most of his equipment in 2002. He left to the city of Berlin lots of debt and a big mess.
The breakthrough he had hoped for in Peru, however, was a long time not coming. Witte had to return to Berlin. He wanted to finance the trip home with cocaine smuggling - the drug mafia had forced him into it.
It turned out to be an undercover sting by the Peruvian police and it brought his son in prison in Peru. Witte himself was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in Berlin, which he partially served while being released. His then 20-year-old son Marcel who had little to do with the whole thing did not get away that easy. He was sentenced to 20 years in one of the world’s toughest prisons with little chance of leaving alive ever again.
DVD is available at Amazon