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AUFERSTANDEN AUS RUINEN

RISEN FROM RUINS

SHORTFILM - FICTION // 20:00 min. [2025]

“The 1990s: In the chaos following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, two friends set out to rebuild their lives -

by smuggling German cars into the wreckage of post-Soviet Russia.” 

“Risen from the Ruins” is the new short fiction film by director Harry Besel. 

The 1990s: Amid the chaos of the post-socialist East, Andreas, an East German car mechanic, and Alexei, a border-crosser from the former Soviet Union, team up to smuggle German cars into Russia. Among the ruins of their former homeland, they try to build a new future — but the rules of the new capitalist game are ruthless: West German investors are buying up the former GDR, while corrupt border officials and merciless gangsters control the smuggling routes. Andreas and Alexei are brutally shaken out of their naïveté and forced to realize that they never stood a chance in this new world.

Funded by "Hessen Film & Medien" and "HAB - Hessen Abschlussförderung", Risen from Ruins was successfully completed in July 2025 an is now in its festival distribution phase.
 

“Risen from Ruins” is a stand-alone short fiction film but also serves as a proof-of-concept for a feature-length film. With Risen from Ruins, Harry Besel wants to showcase that the underlying material and themes of the film are perfect suited for a feature-length movie or a series concept.

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 THE CREW 

DIRECTOR I WRITER I PRODUCER

Harry Besel

EDITOR​

Bela Johann Vienken

 

1st AD

Janis Schmidt

 

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Ferdinand Kowalke

 

1st AC

Till Krüger

 

SOUND ENGINEER

Friedrich Haustein

 

GAFFER

Daniel Hellwig

GRIP

Max Muselmann
Hannes Döring

 

COSTUME I MAKE-UP

Julia Gens

Michelle Haupt

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Victoria Koberstein

STAGE DESIGN I ART DIRECTION

Charlotte Ella Bouchon
Linnea Kuht

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Alisa Siebert

Car Rig Operator

Philipp Knopf

 

SETRUNNER

Zenon Kristen

SET PHOTOGRAPHER
Michelle Haupt
Max Muselmann

 THE CAST 

Johann-Christof Laubisch
as Andreas Diehlmann

Nikita Petrosian

as Alexey Danilenko

Andrej Agranovski
as Oleg the Car Dealer

Alexander Waigel

as Eugen - Border Official

Alexej Boris
as Nikolai - Border Official

Wolfgang Preussger

as Bundeswehr Officer

Lukas Umlauft
as West German Businessman

Lilli Sommerhage

as Bundeswehr Soldier

PRODUCED BY

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FUNDED BY

SUPPORTED BY

FILMSTILLS

BEHIND THE SCENES

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

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In 1992, my family emigrated from Kazakhstan to Germany. Like many so-called “late repatriates” (Spätaussiedler), we had to start from scratch, but we were full of hope and believed that life in the West would be fairer. Eventually, word spread that you could make good money by selling used German cars in the former Eastern Bloc. Especially in Russia, where people were obsessed with Mercedes, BMWs, and Opels. It became the “business” of the common man and a chance to get back on your feet quickly.

But the early euphoria didn’t last. In the turmoil of the 1990s, unemployment, inflation, and crime exploded across the post-socialist East. I still remember a young man who lived in our tiny housing complex with his family. He drove a white Mercedes 190 to Russia and never returned. He was ambushed and murdered near the Polish-Russian border.

With Risen from Ruins, I look at the deeper consequences of what followed the collapse of the Easter Bloc when West German investors bought up East German industries and dismantled them for profit. In Russia, where impoverished civil servants, ex-KGB operatives, and Western businessmen looted public assets in a team effort. The result was a mafia-style oligarchy that now dominates Russian politics and wages a brutal and unjustified war against Ukraine.

But amid these sweeping geopolitical shifts, my film focuses on the everyday people trying to survive the chaos. Risen from Ruins tells the story of two friends from the former Eastern Bloc who struggle to find their place in a new system. They enter the tempting used-car trade, only to discover too late that the rules of the game are set by others. The film reflects a time that left deep scars - wounds that have since reopened in disturbing ways.

Today, I look at East Germany and see that it has become fertile ground for the far-right extremist AfD party - a party spreading across the entire country. I see my own community, Russian-Germans, supporting this party and falling for Russian propaganda. It’s painful to witness. But I want to explore the roots of this broken trust. What happens to people when they’re told, over and over again: “You don’t matter”? I believe the truth lies buried in the 1990s - a decade of hope, and a decade of squandered opportunities.

This film is not an excuse, nor a nostalgic look back. It is my attempt to tell what happens when people are crushed, when their homeland is dismantled, when they are promised inclusion and then are abandoned. Risen from Ruins asks: What remains of democracy’s promise when it never truly reached everyone?

Harry Besel - Director I Writer I Producer

©2025 by Harry Besel

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