CAUTION! This East German TV "Christmas" film is NOT from 1990! It was supposed to air on December 23, 1962 and was cancelled a few days before because of a panic attack in the censorship department. 9 out of 10 stars not for the sets, costumes or other trivialities. But for the built-in everyday problems and the unfiltered film plot! The agitation leader of the ruling SED Kurt Hager subsequently complained about this at a party advisory in 1963:
"The taxi driver, who is to be understood here as the common man, has constantly pessimistic and nihilistic thoughts, which are neither overruled nor disproved by the plot or by other people. When the taxi driver gets into an argument with a passenger who wants to report him, the taxi driver thinks 'Denounce me(!) Man, denounce always! A nation of prevented and unprevented policemen, that's what we are and have always been. Glory to us!' The discrediting and falsification of our society is reinforced by the fact that, as I said, the driver - the 'hero' - encounters incomprehension, resistance and hostility in his attempt to help another person."
So there was truly no reason to let this pass through censorship. Shortly said a mean, disintegrative mischief and therefore worth watching.
"The taxi driver, who is to be understood here as the common man, has constantly pessimistic and nihilistic thoughts, which are neither overruled nor disproved by the plot or by other people. When the taxi driver gets into an argument with a passenger who wants to report him, the taxi driver thinks 'Denounce me(!) Man, denounce always! A nation of prevented and unprevented policemen, that's what we are and have always been. Glory to us!' The discrediting and falsification of our society is reinforced by the fact that, as I said, the driver - the 'hero' - encounters incomprehension, resistance and hostility in his attempt to help another person."
So there was truly no reason to let this pass through censorship. Shortly said a mean, disintegrative mischief and therefore worth watching.
