Songs of Repression

Directors: Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga

At the foot of the Andes Mountains in Chile lies an idyllic German colony. However, the beauty of the place contains a grim past. In 1961, the German preacher Paul Schäfer and his congregation moved to Chile with the stated aim of helping the poor. They established Colonia Dignidad (Colony of Dignity), which transformed into a closed sect. This film explores how the remaining residents of the colony deal with 45 years of child abuse, collective beatings and slave-like living conditions. It also reveals how people in the colony assisted Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973 – 1990) in torturing and killing political prisoners and burying them in mass graves on their own 16,000 – hectare land.