The Legend of Rita

The Legend of Rita
German DVD cover
Directed by	Volker Schlöndorff
Produced by	Arthur Hofer Emmo Lempert Friedrich-Carl Wachs
Written by	Wolfgang Kohlhaase Volker Schlöndorff
Starring	Bibiana Beglau Nadja Uhl Martin Wuttke Harald Schrott Mario Irrek Alexander Beyer Jenny Schily
Edited by	Peter Przygodda
Release date	2000 (2000)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

Die Stille nach dem Schuß or The Silence after the Shot is a 2000 German film that was released in English as The Legend of Rita. The film focuses on collusion between the East German secret police, or Stasi, and the West German terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF). The fictional characters all have close parallels to real-life RAF members.

In a letter left for her friend Tatjana, fugitive Red Army Faction terrorist Rita Vogt (Bibiana Beglau) relates the story of her life.

During the 1970s, Rita and her fellow urban guerrillas carried out armed robberies, kidnappings, and various other attacks in West Germany, as part of their campaign of armed struggle against the capitalist system. During a visit to Paris, Rita is asked by a local police officer for her license. In response, she flees, the French police officer pursues her into a parking ramp, and Rita fatally shoots him.

Later, following a prison break which involves the murder of a West Berlin corrections officer, Rita and her comrades flee, via the Friedrichstraße train station into East Berlin. As the German Democratic Republic has signed conventions against terrorism, the East German secret police, or Stasi, is reluctant to help. The Stasi's chief, Erich Mielke (Dietrich Körner), disagrees. In a conversation with Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke), Mielke expresses sympathy for the RAF's terrorist attacks against West German and U.S. targets, which he compares to his own similar activities during both the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. He orders Agent Hull to assist them unofficially.