THE NEED TO KNOW

Michael Honegger's father was a spy during the Cold War. Bilingual in German and English, he worked for the US Air Force and sent agents to East Germany and elsewhere behind the Iron Curtain. The Honeggers lived in West Germany between 1959 and 1963, at the height of of the Cold War. None of the family had any idea of ​​the father's professional life and all questions about it were given the same predictable response: "Do you need to know?", followed by a smile and of silence. It was only long after he retired that he finished to give some details about his career as a special agent of the counterintelligence. This project is an exploration of the meager details that have emerged from these brief conversations and Michael's curiosity about Cold War espionage and its impact on his family at the time. His father led two lives that rarely crossed paths. His family members were often the unwitting participants in indecipherable events that left them with many more questions than answers. Mysterious strangers would show up at their apartment late at night and leave before dawn without saying a word to anyone but his father. Meetings strange, curious radio transmissions and unexplained coincidences became the norm of his childhood.