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- A German stage actor's cult following and popularity after protesting the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia
- Herr Steinkoehler is a passionate pedestrian, yet he suddenly finds his family coming into ownership of two Wartburgs. One of them Steinkoehler bought out of pity from a friend who needed the money to pay off his divorced wife, whereas the second one his wife Gisela secretly ordered years ago and has now just arrived. Both of them enroll in a driving school. For Steinkoehler, the lessons, or more precisely the driving instructor named Hempel, are nightmarish. Hempel exercises his powers to their fullest extent with Steinkoehler. In addition, Steinkoehler becomes jealous when his wife Gisela distinctly mixes very well with her own driving instructor. Yet fate would have it that a flighty, young, female driving student mistakes him for a driving instructor. Her devotion both lifts and confuses him with equal measure, but he is nevertheless determined to use this unexpected opportunity for adventure.
- Eight space cargo-ships disappear without a trace within three days. And the orbit station "Margot" has suddenly fallen silent. The space council is faced with a mystery and the scientist in charge, Maria Scholl, sees no other solution than ordering a total flight stop to this mysterious sector of space. Her colleague, Prof. Tal seems to be suspicious since he knows things before they are even released. A forbidden look into his personal file brings to light that Tal was part of the Eolomea project that never found approval of the commission in charge.
- After a six year journey, the Spaceship Cyrno lands on the planet TEM 4 from where they had received a call for help. Strangely enough, the Temers deny having sent this message. As commander Akala prepares the spaceship to leave they get an invitation from the rich ruler of TEM 4 to be a part of a lush party. Not only do the opulent food and the seductive dancers cloud their minds, but also the drugs mixed into their food manipulate their consciousness. Only navigator Suko was left behind on the spaceship for security reasons and makes an unexpected, terrible discovery.
- A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory. With this film, director Slatan Dudow (1903-1963) continued the traditions of proletarian German film from the Weimar Republic. As with his first feature film Kuhle Wampe, from a screenplay by Bertolt Brecht, Dudow wanted an art that "cultivates the viewer's psyche." His postwar films were intended to make the viewers realize the importance of supporting the "new order" in East Germany. Our Daily Bread became known as a premiere film of its day under the rubric of "socialist realism." Slatan Dudow's work was convincing mainly through his detailed descriptions of socialist everyday life. Music by Hanns Eisler was the centerpiece of contemporary review. After coming back from his exile in America, the composer created a score that challenged, thrilled, and focused. Berlin's world of ruins is captured in almost documentary fashion.
- Nine-year old George, son of British settlers, is kidnapped by Iroquois and raised by the chief who adopts him. Later he gets the chance to return to his family but refuses because he has discovered that the palefaces are the true savages.
- One year has passed since Max and Wanda got their divorce. Max has come to the realization that he wants his ex-wife back - no matter what the cost! So he concocts a sneaky plan: he asks Wanda to hide him from the police, who are apparently looking for him. At first, Wanda rejects all his attempts to restart their relationship. But she is soon unable to resist Max's convincing promises and even throws her lover out of the house. But then she discovers Max's lie... Frank Beyer and Jurek Becker were inspired by Ingmar Bergmann's Scenes from a Marriage and created a comedy - their own version of that film from a socialist filmmaker's point of view. While working on the film, the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann was officially expelled from East Germany. Frank Beyer, Jurek Becker, Manfred Krug, Jutta Hoffmann and others signed a letter of protest, which resulted in the cancellation of the film's premiere. This later fueled Hoffmann and Krug's decision to leave the GDR for West Germany. The film was finally released with only five circulating prints in November 1978. Nevertheless, Krug's fans flooded into the screenings in Berlin. Officials saw this success as a boost for Krug, who had already started a new career in West Germany, and unoffically removed the film from distribution.
- In 1961, Rita returns to her childhood village after a breakdown. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for chemist Manfred, 10 years her senior; his enthusiasm about his new chemical process, which turned to bitter disappointment in the face of rejection; his escape to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built; and his hope that she would follow him. This East German classic, praised by critics as one of Germany's 100 Most Important Films, is based on Christa Wolf's internationally-known novel, criticized in the GDR for questioning the construction of the Wall. Produced during a brief cultural thaw in the early 1960s, this film was strongly influenced by French Nouvelle Vague cinema.
- Fall 1989: Jan is almost 16. Caught while trying to escape to West Germany, he is transferred from prison to a juvenile detention center. Here, he meets Jana ... and what starts as a bet, becomes true love. When Jana gets pregnant, the situation spirals out of control. In the summer of 1990, Jana and Jan flee into the unknown, insecure future of a new Germany. In this film, the director, internationally known for his critical films about children and young people, cast non-professional actors - some from juvenile detention centers - in the leading roles.
- During Great Depression, a family is evicted from their apartment and with no other option they move to a tent camp called Kuhle Wampe.
- In this film, Wolf and scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase explore the role of art and the artist in socialist society. A sculptor questions the reception and value of his work, in a delicately nuanced narrative interweaving personal memories, historical dilemmas, and political defeats.
- Little Sabine has spent her childhood in an orphanage after her parents died in a car accident. When one of the women in charge at the orphanage, Edith, leaves to have a baby, Sabine runs away, because Edith was the only adult there she could trust. She then wanders through the city to find someone to take her in. She meets a lot of people on her journey, but she seems out of place everywhere she goes until, at last, she realizes that there is a special place where she belongs.
- Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier, but at the front Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war. When Gilbert is hanged by the SS, Werner turns his gun on his own army. This film, based on Dieter Noll's novel, is a political and artistic masterpiece. Its fresh and surprising frankness about the toll war takes on youth found great public resonance after the film's release.
- Carola is a mischievous girl who doesn't care much for school - except for sports and recess, of course. Without her good friend Willi to keep her on the straight and narrow, she would really be in trouble. One day at school, Carola has an idea. She invents what she calls "International Ghosts' Day" and a ghost named "Buh" to go with it. When Buh turns out to be less-than-imaginary the two decide to switch places, with Buh taking on all the schoolwork, and Carola taking the opportunity to play practical jokes on all her friends. However, Carola soon finds that being a ghost loses its appeal, and when she decides to switch back, Buh doesn't play along. It's up to her playmate to step in and help her get her body back.
- Berlin, seven years after WWII. Four women are looking for happiness and a good man in the divided city. Their destinies are loosely connected through one person: the West Berlin dandy and womanizer, Conny. Released at the peak of East German cultural and political dogmatism, the film was heavily critiqued, especially by female party leaders who objected that its portrayal of the four women did not represent the qualities that characterized women in the new society. Now considered as a richly contradictory work, Destinies of Women represents an encore production by the Dudow/Eisler/Brecht creative team that also made Kuhle Wampe in 1932.
- As a painter in the court of King Carlos IV, Goya - played by the great Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis (The Red Tent, Solaris) - has attained wealth and reputation. He believes in King and Church, yet he is also a Spaniard who dearly loves his people. This contradiction presents him with a dilemma. Based on Lion Feuchtwanger's novel, Goya is one of ten East German films originally shot in 70mm. This release is the director's cut and shows the influence of great filmmakers from Buñuel and Saura, to Eisenstein. Goya was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 1971 Moscow International Film Festival.
- Based on the novel by Thomas Mann. Charlotte Kestner, the love of Goethe's youth, became famous because she was the real-life Lotte represented in his renowned The Sorrows of Young Werther. At age 44 she travels to Weimar to see Goethe again, and high society's posturing and Goethe's personal history lead her to an unexpected conclusion. Dramaturge (later Studio Director) Walter Janka was befriended by the Thomas Mann family, making this adaptation possible.
- Although the Indians were assured their lands adjacent to the Black Hills by contract, the Whites want to expel them. Meanwhile, gold has been discovered there and the unscrupulous settler, Red Fox, demands of Mattotaupa, chief of the Bears Clan belonging to the Dakota tribe, to reveal to him the location of a cave with gold deposits. Mattotaupa refuses and is stabbed to death by Red Fox in the presence of his son Tokei-ihto. Lieutenant Roach orders Tokei-ihto to Fort Smith in order to negotiate. The son of the slain chief suspects that the Whites are planning an ambush, a fear that is confirmed when he encounters Red Fox there. Tokei-ihto refuses to move to a reservation in an infertile area with his tribe and is incarcerated. When the Dakota Indians have been defeated and resettled, he is released. Tokei-ihto learns of the murder of the senior chief Tashunka-witko. Tokei-ihto now wants to fulfill his legacy, escaping with the subgroup of his tribe to the fertile areas beyond the Missouri in Canada. While the members of the Bears Clan cross the border, Tokei-ihto encounters Red Fox, his father's murderer.
- Slatan Dudow's best-known and last completed film, a big-budget production featuring Angelica Domroese (of later The Legend of Paul and Paula fame), Annekatrin Bürger and Willi Schrade. The film ran into trouble with official socialist morality due to its frank depiction of sex (including nude bathing scenes) and portrayal of consumerism, along with a very stylized version of comedy.
- Rebellious young Werther is passionately, but hopelessly, in love with Lotte. Although he knows that she is married to somebody who can offer her a secure future, Werther tries to be near her. Lotte cannot decide between these two men. She eventually rejects Werther, who does not survive her decision. Based on the novel by Goethe. Director Egon Günther and set designer Helga Schütz make cameo appearances.
- DDR film from the mid-60s: Li and Al, not long married, want to divorce. They feel trapped in their marriage and in their one-room apartment. They long for an unconventional, meaningful life, but the search for meaning confounds them.
- When Dr. Schmith's (Armin Mueller-Stahl) proposal for international research on infant mortality is rejected, he decides to leave East Germany and strikes a deal with an escape agency that promises him a leading position at a children's hospital in West Germany. But then the decision is reversed: the project is approved and his international colleagues want Dr. Schmith to head the GDR section. He falls in love with his new colleague, Katharina (Jenny Gröllmann). Schmith initially tries to ignore the arrangements he made with the escape agency, but they blackmail him. Things soon turn deadly... As the topic of escaping to the West was taboo in the GDR, The Flight is an exception in East German film history. The film, which won the Grand Prix at the Karoly Vary International Film Festival in 1978, was the last one Armin Mueller-Stahl made at the East German DEFA studios. In 1980, only two years after the release of the film, he left East Germany for the West because of professional restrictions imposed upon him after he joined protests against the expatriation of the dissident singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann.
- The film is set in the 1930s in Germany. Maria Rheine and Mark Löwenthal, two young actors working in a small theater, are in love with each other. Their love affair is interrupted by Nazi racial policies; Mark is no longer allowed to perform in German theaters because he is a Jew. In order to continue acting, he joins the newly formed Jewish Theater in Berlin. Maria, who is not Jewish, faces no restrictions on her career, and she becomes a successful actress at a big theater in Munich. But her love for Mark eventually leads her to decide to sacrifice both career and security to remain close to him. She fakes a suicide, assumes a Jewish identity and, as Manja Löwenthal, joins the Jewish Theater
- High-school senior Peter considers the adults around him to be hypocritical, self-congratulatory, and immersed in the past. He gets suspended for writing an essay that his teachers consider to be a challenge to the state. Just Don't Think I'll Cry became one of twelve films and film projects-almost an entire year's production-that were banned in 1965-1966 due to their alleged anti-socialist aspects. Although scenes and dialogs were altered and the end was reshot twice, officials condemned this title as "particularly harmful." In 1989, cinematographer Ost restored the original version, and this and most of the other banned films were finally screened in January 1990. Belatedly, they were acclaimed as masterpieces of critical realism.
- The second part of the Ernst Thälmann films encompasses the time period between 1930 and Thälmann's murder in 1944. It shows Thälmann's battle to achieve a united front with all German workers against the National Socialists, his arrest following Hitler's seizure of power and the eleven years of his incarceration, in which he is unwavering in his beliefs until his death. An attempt to free him on the part of his comrades ends disastrously, and a corrupt offer of freedom from Göring himself receives Thälmann's refusal. He must also witness how his brave fellow Socialist Aenne Jansen in the women's prison across from his tragically loses her life during a bombing raid. The second primary character of the film is Aenne's husband Fiete Jansen, who already proved his loyalty to Thälmann's side as a friend and fighter in the first part. As the commander of the Thälmann Battalion, he fights in Spain on the side of the people and later in the ranks of the Red Army toward a speedy end to the war against Fascism.