"Starting with a demonstration by bosses called by the Federation of German Industries and concluding with credits that include an non-exhaustive list of the cultural and social cutbacks. The contrasts could not be any starker. Daniela Michel and Alexander Kleider portray people who are directly affected by the changes to the welfare systems. Mr and Mrs Schmidt, for example. This blind couple are fighting against the 20 percent cut in the allowance for the blind. Or Mrs Hinzer. A pensioner who fears for the day trips to Brandenburg organised for senior citizens. And Matthias Vemaldi, who is severely ill with MS and even fears for his life should his round-the-clock care be reduced. But what would a social documentary be if it did not offer prospects for the future? Berlin’s best-known professor of political science, Peter Grottian, provides the vision. A gripping piece of agitprop about Agenda 2010. Verdict: worth seeing."

"A sarcastic prologue: a demonstration by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). The well-to-do gentlemen applaud sentences such as: “We must change the mood in Germany...A jolt needs to be sent through the country.” “Eiszeit” then documents this so-called "jolt", the biggest ever cut into the German welfare state, a socio-political change in values par excellence: the growing division of society into rich and poor, “top” and “bottom”. “Eiszeit” consciously follows the tradition of left-wing agitprop cinema with remarkable accuracy and emotionality."

“The documentary “Eiszeit” puts Agenda 2010 into concrete terms. The blind, the severely disabled and the unemployed who live alone are hardest hit by the savings in health and social services that form part of “Agenda 2010”.
With no commentary, the film allows the people affected to tell their story. The story of social changes in a city that will soon no longer only be divided into East and West, but also into rich and poor.
On 22 September 2003, for the first time, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) called a demonstration demanding greater autonomy and competition. This is how the film begins, and what follows naturally uncovers the cynical side of successful business people when it comes to community spirit.[...]
The subtext of this film conveys a more worrying message: after breaking down communal bonds on a grand scale, the welfare state has, in return for its invaluable help, taken charge of entirely private matters.
Matthias Vemaldi may still be able to choose the people who provide his care. But the imminent cutbacks to social services, as the others know too, will radically change their personal lives. This scares them. "All of a sudden we are no longer protected", says Anneliese Schmidt.[...]"

"It is particularly unsettling to see unemployed or elderly people worrying about the future in their well-maintained homes. Such images do not, however, confirm the “moaning of affluent German citizens”, as people like to claim. No, no longer being needed means loneliness and bleak rows of houses, which the filmmakers use as a commentary. The viewer gets very close to the protagonists and thinks: it simply cannot be true that a society is giving up on so many of its qualified people and is now almost condemning its welfare state more than valuing it."

"What became visible in this DOK-WERK production, at times with poetic attention, was a concrete picture of the lives of individual people living in the shadow of the funding cuts. It showed the “everyday politics” that are familiar to many of us, but which, in the media, generally get lost between quiz shows and talent shows."

“Like being on a never-ending slide. [...] With sensitivity and commitment, the filmmakers convey the increasingly harsh social climate in Germany through the fate of specific individuals [...]”