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- Ulla is a sensitive and principled 10th-grader in a small East German town. When Winfried falls in love with her, he adopts her passion for protecting the environment. Ulla tries to stop illegal trout farm and gets her classmates involved.
- A young teacher in East Berlin struggles with accepting his homosexuality.
- A true road movie. Set in the 1970-s, in Communist Central Europe. An East German guy with a Dutch girl -- hitchhiking their way, with all sorts of adventures. This movie feels like you're on a holiday yourself.
- Sunny is a singer in a band which is constantly on the road. She therefore leads a relatively restless life, which she cannot afford to give up, having to rely on the fee she gets paid..
- Gregor Hecker, who fled Germany with his parents, returns to Germany as a lieutenant in the Red Army.
- 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.
- In medieval Germany, poor and witty Till Eulenspiegel fools and cheats citizens, churchmen, and landlords. Although in most cases he uses his wit for personal well-being, he often helps the poor and weak. Eventually, he gains an influential but also dangerous position as royal fool at the court of the emperor.
- 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.
- Frühjahr 1945 in einem kleinen Ort an der Ostsee. Am Strand finden der 15-jährige Günter (Gert Krause-Melzer) und ein gleichaltriger russischer Fremdarbeiter (Viktor Perewalow) einen toten Soldaten. Wenig später hetzen Günter, der immer noch an den Endsieg glaubt, und eine Schar Jugendlicher den entflohenen jungen Russen durch den Wald. Während Günter ihn stellt und ihm zuredet sich zu ergeben, erschießt der Dorfpolizist (Hans Hardt-Hardtloff) den Russen. Stolz nimmt Günter das Eiserne Kreuz entgegen und meldet sich freiwillig zum Fronteinsatz, obwohl sein Vater (Rolf Ludwig) schon im Krieg gefallen ist. Weder seine Freundin Christine (Dorothea Meissner) noch seine Mutter (Lissy Tempelhof) können ihn davon abbringen. Gleich beim ersten Einsatz wird er von einer sowjetischen Militärstreife aufgegriffen. Doch als ihr Jeep auf eine Mine fährt, überlebt Günter als einziger und flieht nach Hause. Er versteckt sich im Haus von Christines Eltern, kehrt aber zu seiner Mutter zurück, als sich Christines Vater (Norbert Christian) aus Angst vor den herannahenden russischen Truppen das Leben nimmt. Kurz nachdem die Sowjetarmee den Ort besetzt hat, wird Günter wegen Mordes an dem Fremdarbeiter verhaftet. Heiner Carows Film erzählt die letzten Tage des Zweiten Weltkriegs aus der Perspektive eines Hitlerjungen. Der Film erhielt 1968 keine staatliche Zulassung, stellt er doch keinen antifaschistischen Helden, sondern einen Mitläufer als Opfer in den Mittelpunkt und verwischt damit provokativ die Grenzen zwischen Schuld und Unschuld. Erst zwanzig Jahre später konnten die Filmemacher "Die Russen kommen" in einem aufwändigen Rekonstruktionsprozess aus den wenigen noch erhaltenen Teilen des Originalnegativs und Positivfragmenten wieder zusammenfügen. In einer erneuten Restaurierung ab 2014 fanden Experten der DEFA-Stiftung in der Arbeitskopie zahlreiche bisher nicht entdeckte Fragmente, mit denen sie den Film noch einmal völlig neu zusammensetzten.
- 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.
- Two adolescents, Sauly and Mick, get to know each other while hitchhiking and stick together for the long haul. They both want to reach the ocean, which is some thousand kilometers away. An old car picks them up, but the trip ends shortly thereafter in a sleazy motel. At the bar, a man named Landolfi approaches them. He explains to Sauly that he must have sold his guardian angel to a man by the name of Miller in the city of Prince. Though the boys do not believe in guardian angels, Sauly slowly succumbs to his own fears. He would like to have his guardian angel back again. On their trip, Sauly becomes sick. Mick works on a farm to pay the doctor's bills. Once Sauly is well, they travel farther - until they reach Prince. In this mysterious city, all of the people are named Miller, and once Sauly and Mick finally are at the ocean, they meet Landolfi once more.
- The architect Daniel Brenner is in his late thirties when he receives his first challenging and lucrative commission: to design a cultural center for a satellite town in East-Berlin. He accepts the offer under the condition that he gets to choose who he works with. This way, he reunites with former colleagues and friends - most of them architects or students of architecture who have since chosen a different profession due to personal restraint or economic confinement. Together, they develop a concept which they hope will be more appealing to the public than the conventional and dull constructions common to the German Democratic Republic. However, their ambitious plans are once and again foiled by their conservative supervisors. As frustration grows, Daniel has trouble keeping his career in balance with his family-life: his wife Wanda wants to leave for West-Germany.
- Vienna, 1813-1819: Beethoven (Donatas Banionis) is at the peak of his fame. Orchestras all over the world play his music, but he lives modestly and is dependent upon private patrons. Nagged by his patronizing brothers, spied upon by officials for his republican beliefs and faced by his progressive hearing loss, the composer becomes more and more isolated.
- 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.
- Scenes from an East German marriage. A young couple, Sonya and Jens, are very much in love; they get married and have a child. When Sonya wants to go back to work after her maternity leave, they clash for the first time; Jens insists that she remain a full-time wife and mother. Until Death Do Us Part turns an actual police report into a gripping drama, as the director explores the depths of his characters' emotions, driving the conflict to a catastrophic climax.
- Four young Germans in a Soviet POW camp decide to join the Red Army to hasten the end of the war. Their new identities elicit different reactions from Germans and Russians, and are difficult to live up to when they are sent behind German lines.
- 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
- At age 12, Hannes and Carolin fall in love comparing this to a cloud. Unfortunately their parents have differing opinions of their relationship, which causes a breakup. But there are more 'fish in the sea,' as these two soon find out.
- The King of Malabunt has won another war, after decorating himself and his three wooden marshals, he dismisses his army with a low wages. One of his soldiers protest this and is thrown into jail, but he swears to someday return and take all the wealth of the king. In prison he meets a Strong man, who is afraid of his own strength because he can't control it. He sneezes and the Soldier is send flying through the wall into a tree. On their way through the world they meet a girl who wants to join them, but the Soldier dismisses her for being to short. They meet a thief, which is always hungry and can outrun a horse, a Feedler who plays wonderful music, a Hunter which can shoot berries out of their hands, but is strict and tidy. While the girl gets into a bag and is picked up to join their adventure. Together they take on the kingdom. In competitions against the Princess, Runner, after lazing around, beats her in a race. As price soldier gets the princesses hand. But she doesn't want to marry him, and tries to kill him multiple times, but doesn't succeed because of his wits and the help of his friends. After surviving their last trap, the king bribes them with gold, as much as Strong can carry. And so Soldier made his promise come true, to take all the riches away from the king.
- In the fall of 1793, the essayist and naturalist Georg Forster meets his estranged wife, Therese, and her lover Ferdinand Huber. Over the course of three days and nights, and in the shadow of the revolutionary events in Paris, a private melodrama takes place in Travers, Switzerland. Shown at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
- Susanne is a young single mother who lives a somewhat "carefree" lifestyle. After quitting her job, she finds herself in trouble financially and attempts a minor insurance fraud to make ends meet. Despite its rare view of everyday socialism from a woman's perspective, East German officials were critical of this frank portrayal of a less-than-ideal socialist citizen and turned down all invitations for the film to be screened abroad. In West Germany, however, Evelyn Schmidt's film received much praise for its critical feminist approach. The Bicycle was part of the 2005 Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany retrospective, shown at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- Ten-year-old Frantisek is traveling to Leipzig to visit his German friend Egon. On the train, he shares the compartment with three men. One of them, the bearded, hefty Blasius is polite but at times acts very confused. At the end station the two boys meet, but they must first of all get rid of Blasius, who lifts them up together with their luggage and carries them away. Leipzig is packed with tourists who have gathered for the famous Fair. The eccentric bearded fellow deals effectively with the traffic jam in front of the station. Blasius's fellow travelers from the train - inventors Prantl and Pirwitz, are at the fairground, boasting of their new invention and claiming it to be the greatest surprise of the entire Fair.
- Dr. Lydia Kowalenko loses her job at a pharmaceutical company after she refuses to cover up the shortcomings of certain captive preparations that have already cost lives. Through connections, she soon finds herself a new position. Shortly afterwards, however, her old boss gets her back under his wing again due to a company merger. This time around, she begins to conform. Her daughter Katia, also a doctor, is unscrupulously intent on pursuing her own career from the outset. Driven by her research ambitions, she carries out an unnecessary operative intervention in the clinic on a female patient who then dies from the operation's complications. Katia's son Thomas, who also wants to become a doctor, works as an assistant in the pathology department. He witnesses how the case is covered up and how litigation by the clinic director is quickly forestalled. When Thomas has an accident, he dies in the hospital before the eyes of his relatives, who do not know whether he succumbed to his injuries or if he was a victim of an artificial blood transfusion.