SPK Complex

Title:
SPK Komplex
Country:
D
Format:
DCP 1:1,85
Version:
german & italien OV
Subtitles:
engl.subtitled
Director:
Gerd Kroske
Camera:
Susanne Schüle, Anne Misselwitz
Editing:
Olaf Voigtländer, Stephan Krumbiegel
Editor:
Rolf Bergmann, rbb
Production:
realistfilm
Co-Production:
rbb
Support:
BKM, DFFF; FFHSH, MBBB, Filmbüro MV
Distributor:
Worldsales:
Website:

In 1970, Dr. Wolfgang Huber and a group of patients founded the anti-psychiatric “Socialist

Patient’s Collective” in Heidelberg. Controversial therapy methods, political demands, and

a massive interest in the movement from patients deeply distrustful of conventional

“custodial psychiatry,” led to run-ins with the University of Heidelberg and local authorities.

The conflict quickly escalated and resulted in the radicalization of the SPK. Their

experiment in group therapy ultimately ended in arrests, prison, and the revocation of

Huber’s license to practice medicine.

From a historical perspective, the SPK court cases seem to anticipate the Stammheim

trials, with the exclusion of defense attorneys, the total non-compliance of the defendants,

and harsh penalties for both Huber and his wife. The severity of the sentences handed

down appears hardly proportional to the actual deeds of the accused. The allegation of

having supported the RAF, and thus of being complicit in their terrorism, still clings to the

SPK and overlies what the movement was originally about: the rights of psychiatric

patients, resistance, and self-empowerment—issues that are still relevant today.

SPK COMPLEX focuses on the untold story of events before the “German Autumn” and

their consequences up to the present day. A story of insanity, public perception, and

(un)avoidable violence.

Pressscans_SPK_KOMPLEX 

links: press/broadcast/interviews are here:

more about the documentary are here: https://www.spk-komplex-film.de/en/spk-complex/

Trailer:

Presse: