THE Stasi – which had 100,000 fulltime employees and 300,000 informers to spy on 17 million East Germans – is also the subject of the incisive Belgian documentary “The Decomposition of the Soul,” which is playing at Film Forum. This frightening companion piece gives a tour of a grim prison where the Stasi interrogated suspected dissidents, breaking them down – sometimes forcing them to confess to crimes they didn’t commit – by isolating them in bare rooms for hours and even days without moving. There are touching interviews with a couple of former inmates, who were “reeducated” for years after they were
caught trying to help people attempting to escape to West Germany after the Berlin Wall went up. The most riveting part of “The Decomposition of the Soul” is their return to the prison, which was closed in 1989 and
turned into a memorial to its victims.
In German with English subtitles. Running time: 82 minutes. Not rated (adult subject matter). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.
THE DECOMPOSITION OF THE SOUL
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