Dear Fidel - Marita´s Story

Colour, 35mm
Germany, 2000, 92 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

Dear Fidel . . . With these words Marita Lorenz begins her letter to the Cuban leader in the spring of 2000. She met him as a nineteen-year-old on board the Berlin where her father was captain. They began an affair and she became pregnant by him. After eight months of passion Fidel Castro lost interest in her and Marita was given another shock when, in her sixth month, she was forced to undergo an abortion. She meant nothing to Fidel anymore but she attracted the attention of the CIA. However, Marita did not fulfil her task – to kill Castro. Nevertheless, she continued working for the American government. There then followed a series of colourful episodes – an affair with a former Venezuelan dictator, involvement in the Watergate scandal, a secret mission during which she met Lee Harvey Oswald, later accused of assassinating president Kennedy, espionage for the FBI, contact with Mafia bosses . . . . Marita Lorenz had learned to survive any situation, even as a five-year-old girl when she was imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She is now a pensioner who lives in New York and wants to go back to visit Fidel.

About the director

Wilfried Huismann (b. 1951, Godensholt, Lower Saxony) studied history and sociology in Marburg and Hannover. In 1981 he worked as an observer in Santiago. His book Chile Reports (Chile-Reportagen) began his career as an independent journalist. He has been working for German television since 1987. He is three-time winner of the Adolf Grimme prize, the most prestigious German award presented for top television current-affairs programmes. Selected filmography: Cold Hearted? The President of the Treuhand Birgit Breuel (Kühl bis ans Herz? Die Treuhandpräsidentin Birgit Breuel, 1992), The Ship of the Dead (Das Totesschiff, 1994), In Search of…The Secret of the Olympics Assassination 1972 (Gesucht wird…Das Geheimnis um das Olympia-Attentat 1972, 1996), Opposition in Cuba (Opposition auf Kuba, 1997), Death of the Pharaoh – Anwar al Sadat and the Holy Warriors (Der Tod des Pharao – Anwar al Sadat und die Heiligen Krieger, 1998).