April 25, 1980 News show of emotions

This film reconstructs the events of a single day in the lives of people on the Federal Republic of Germany with the help of their diaries. For most of them it is an ordinary day with important and commonplace personal events: an accident, the birth of a child, a meeting of lovers, a quarrel between parents and children. But it is also a day of far-reaching political importance. On April 25, 1980 the American president Jimmy Carter tells the press, and via TV the world that his commando to free the American hostages of Teheran has failed in the desert of Tabas.The news of this disaster was broadcast on German TV and radio. As their diaries show this was a key event for many people here. It triggered off anxieties and secret fears of war. In their diaries they ask: will the Federal Republic of Germany be drawn into a world wide conflict ending in an atomic war against its will?One year later WDR placed an appeal in the press and radio asking: What did you do on April 25, 1980, what did you write in your diaries on this day? Many of those who sent their private notes did not mention the news. But there was a great and significant number of secret fears, but also their sympathies for the people involved. Film author Heinrich Breloer visited some of the authors of private diaries between Hamburg and Munich, housewives, civil servants, employees, a soldier, schoolchildren. Many of them thought they were alone with their thoughts. The film shows that that is not so. By showing their emotional reactions of the news this film becomes a very unusual commentary to the official world of politics and media—a new show of emotions.The film approaches a vital political issue—the problem of war and peace in the beginning decade of 1980—from a still unusual angle: it gives voice to the thoughts and feelings of people who are at the receiving end of political action. By taking into account both personal and emotional aspects of the problems involved it reveals—beyond what can be gained from opinion polls—new insights into our present world. By directly confronting the interviewed people with the TV news of one day in April 1980 and showing their reactions, the program is also a commentary on the impact of television on the viewer.