A small company delivers heating coal in the Prenzlauer Berg district of East Berlin. The feisty woman who runs the business does so with humor and understanding, and her male employees respect her. Their discussions range from the fall of the Berlin Wall, to child abuse, prison, and alcoholism.

Helke Misselwitz followed the success of Winter Adé with this rich portrait of a private coal company in East Berlin. Vividly capturing the last gasps of the GDR, Who’s Afraid of the Bogeyman transcends anthropological snapshot by virtue of Misselwitz’s boundless curiosity and piercing empathy.