A romantic triangle story told against the backdrop of the building of the Simplon Tunnel at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, as workers battle the elements to build one of the longest railway tunnels in the world.
Category: Love
Love at 16
Love at 16 (Liebe mit 16) belongs to a list of DEFA films that focus on the concerns of teenagers. The list includes Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry, Too Young for Love, Seven Freckles, Swan Island, Damn It, I'm Grown Up, Jana and Jan, and Just Married. The story in this film centers around sixteen-year-old …
Long Roads – Secret Love
The story of two men, a woman with a child, and their travels on the highways of East Germany. Long Roads – Secret Love (Weite Straßen – stille Liebe) starts when Berlin-based trucker Hannes Kass (Manfred Krug) pulls his semi-truck over to check on something. While fixing the problem, Herb Schneider (Jaecki Schwarz), a cheerful …
Private Party
In Frank Beyer's Private Party (Geschlossene Gesellschaft),1 Robert (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and Ellen (Jutta Hoffmann) are a seemingly happy married couple. Robert is a talented engineer whose work just saved the state a million Marks, and Ellen works for the youth services with disadvantaged teens. They decide to go on holiday with some friends. They invite …
Novalis: The Blue Flower
Novalis: The Blue Flower (Novalis – Die blaue Blume) is recognized as the last film to be released by DEFA before the East German film production company closed its doors. The film is told episodically as the poet Novalis is lying on his deathbed. It’s a kaleidoscopic look at events in the poet’s life, up …
Damn It, I’m Grown Up
East Germany lasted forty years. During that time—DEFA, the state’s film production company—made roughly 950 films. Not many when you consider that the film studios in India make more movies than this in a year.1 Nonetheless, during those years, DEFA made several movies exploring the hopes, fears, and dilemmas faced by young people in the …
Just Married
In 1978, director Herrmann Zschoche’s film Seven Freckles was a huge hit. That film told the story of two young lovers meeting and falling in love at a summer camp, where they're cast as Romeo and Juliet in a camp production of Shakespeare’s play. Eleven years later, Zschoche returned to the subject of young love, …
Those “Porcupine” Films (Das Stachetier)
If you’ve read more than a couple of the articles on this blog, you’ll have come across the name “Das Stacheltier.” Formed in 1953 as a subgroup of the documentary film group at DEFA, Das Stacheltier made short films intended to play before the main features at East German cinemas. Stacheltier means porcupine in German1, …
Rivals Behind the Wheel
When one thinks of East German movies, car racing isn't the first thing that comes to mind, but there is one example of this. Rivals Behind the Wheel (Rivalen am Steuer) tells the story of a racecar driver who discovers that the world of international car racing is filled with exploitative capitalists, only interested in …
Joachim Hellwig and defa futurum
Even if you are a fan of East German films and have seen nearly everything in the DEFA catalog, you may not be familiar with the name Joachim Hellwig. Hellwig primarily made documentaries. He was a bit of a party wonk and avoided rocking the boat, so you won’t find any of his films on …
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