Source Material: Documentary Film "For Eyes Only – Ein Film und seine Geschichte" (2009) | The Celluloid Curtain | bpb.de

The 2009 documentary film For Eyes Only – Ein Film und seine Geschichte / For Eyes Only – A Film and its History is a gripping examination of the origins of this celebrated DEFA film and throws new light on the facts and fabrications surrounding it. For Eyes Only was not just a film, it was a propaganda tool; it was accompanied by a publicity campaign designed to provide documentary proof of its authenticity. In actual fact, the leading character in the film is based on a real person: the double agent Horst Hesse succeeded in removing a safe full of documents from the American military secret service department in Würzburg and taking it back to East Berlin. It was revealed at a press conference after his return that, along with information about enemy spies operating in the East, the safe also contained highly damaging documents relating to a joint American – West German plan to attack the GDR. It was only much later that Hesse learnt the truth. The documentary film For Eyes Only – Ein Film und seine Geschichte / For Eyes Only – A Film and its History throws new light on the real facts, the fabrications, the carefully targeted propaganda, the myths and the political naivety in this incident.

Germany, 2009, 80 min., written and directed by Gunther Scholz