Film Archive

Land (Film Archive)

Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Ablinga
Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
A Lithuanian village destroyed by the Wehrmacht is reborn as a forest of sculptures. This film poem commemorates the murdered ones and calls for peace.
Filmstill Ablinga

Ablinga

Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1977
13 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Nothing is left of the Lithuanian village of Ablinga. Destroyed by Wehrmacht soldiers in 1941, a forest of sculptures was erected in 1972 to commemorate those who once lived here. Larger than life, the carved wooden monuments rise to the sky. In national poet Justinas Marcinkevičius’s poem they wake up again, share some last secrets and become connecting links on a timeline that knows violence and dreams of peace. Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s montage is bold, playful and sometimes brutal, her concern credible and strong. Within a few minutes, “Ablinga” puts a spell on us, becoming a monument to German guilt and the memory of the murdered ones.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Script
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Cinematographer
Leonid Krainenkow
Editor
Werner Wendt
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound Design
Peter Gotthardt
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill The First Birthday
The First Birthday
Gabriele Hochneder
Silvia, single mother, celebrates her daughter’s first birthday. A matter-of-fact and occasionally sobering portrait that revolves around a sanguine woman.
Filmstill The First Birthday

The First Birthday

Der erste Geburtstag
Gabriele Hochneder
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
17 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Silvia Szuprizinski has lived alone with her little daughter for a year now: time to take stock. The young woman talks, her stories commented by Gabriele Hochneder’s pictures of everyday life that tell of efforts. Silvia, leaning against the tiled stove, talks about the failed relationship with the child’s father with detachment, but also with a certain degree of regret. At least her own family are present, all of them at the door in time for the first birthday. Still, Silvia spends her nights alone with herself – and the television. The fact that Hochneder’s film, despite the adversities, does not become a lament is at least partly owing to its sanguine main protagonist.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gabriele Hochneder
Cinematographer
Jürgen Lubosch
Editor
Ilona Thiel
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Dialogue
Dialogue
Róża Berger-Fiedler
A young officer opens the doors to the National People’s Army and to his close family. While his life is full of variety, others must play second fiddle.
Filmstill Dialogue

Dialogue

Dialog
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
27 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Won’t make it today, hope you don’t mind.” A casual call, the husband will be late again, not to be expected before eight. He is an officer in the National People’s Army, still young, but with a lot of postings under his belt, always accompanied by his wife. She has resigned herself to her fate, while he flourishes enviably in his profession. Róża Berger-Fiedler spends most of the time by his side, following him in brisk cuts from appointment to appointment. Talking is required and demanded constantly: to representatives of the Soviet armed forces, young recruits, subordinates. Words come easy to him, but not everything runs smoothly.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Script
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Cinematographer
Hans-Eberhard Leupold
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Score
Peter Gotthardt
Filmstill The Bridge of Caputh

The Bridge of Caputh

Die Brücke von Caputh
Eva Fritzsche
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
Germany (Soviet Occupation Zone)
1949
15 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Workers reconstruct a railway bridge and Eva Fritzsche reconstructs the process behind it – by re-enacting what she couldn’t film, supported by the participants, who re-play themselves. The film sings the praises especially of those whose commitment was held in low esteem: young people who even give up playing football, and women who suddenly find themselves working in the factory. “Women as blacksmiths, what a joke!” a job centre employee sneers. This echoes what Eva Fritzsche herself had to listen to at DEFA: “Women don’t make films!” Yes, she did – and created one of the most impressive testimonies of the years of reconstruction.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Eva Fritzsche
Script
Eva Fritzsche
Cinematographer
Arndt von Rautenfeld, Götz Neumann
Editor
Anneliese Schlüter
Producer
DEFA-Studio für populärwissenschaftliche Filme
Score
Eberhard Schmidt, Fritz Steinmann
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Kollwitz and Her Children
Kollwitz and Her Children
Christa Mühl
What to think of children playing on the Kollwitz sculpture? An exchange of letters with its sculptor inspired Christa Mühl to a shrewd and subtle miniature.
Filmstill Kollwitz and Her Children

Kollwitz and Her Children

Die Kollwitz und ihre Kinder
Christa Mühl
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1971
10 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Kollwitzplatz, Prenzlauer Berg: Children are playing and climbing all over the monument to Käthe Kollwitz, frowning adults are watching them. What would Gustav Seitz, the creator of the sculpture, say? Christa Mühl has asked him but reveals his answer only when the adults have finally disappeared. Until then, she constructs explosive matter as light as a feather, set to Belgian cembalo jazz and with the perky montage style that characterises her early documentary work. After Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler himself had the most controversial scene cut, the film could be broadcast on television and triggered a lively discussion about the practical value of art.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Christa Mühl
Script
Werner Hecht, Christa Mühl
Cinematographer
Christiane Kunow
Editor
Karin Döring
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Sound
Wolfgang Hasse
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Diary of a German Woman
Diary of a German Woman
Michael Englberger, Hans-Joachim Funk, Manfred Krause, Andrew Thorndike, Annelie Thorndike
Annelie Thorndike’s diary entries unfold into a passionate ode to the country and people of the GDR. Occasionally, the eye strays westwards with horror and nostalgia.
Filmstill Diary of a German Woman

Diary of a German Woman

Du bist min. Ein deutsches Tagebuch
Michael Englberger, Hans-Joachim Funk, Manfred Krause, Andrew Thorndike, Annelie Thorndike
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1969
111 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The core of this most personal of the Thorndikes’ projects are Annelie’s diary entries: Her story is to be the starting point for a kind of all-German ‘Heimatfilm’ that praises the utopian power of the GDR and sharply condemns Federal German wrongs, but finds transcendent beauty on both sides of the wall. Over the course of production, however, the visionary dimension of the project was progressively trimmed down, though it’s still tangible everywhere in the compromised final version: The intensity of its pathos is both oppressive and enchanting; some historical simplifications and ideological twists and bends may be hair-raising, but they still achieve the desired effect.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Michael Englberger, Hans-Joachim Funk, Manfred Krause, Andrew Thorndike, Annelie Thorndike
Script
Annelie Thorndike, Andrew Thorndike
Cinematographer
Ernst Oeltze, Hermann Ihde, Christian Lehmann, Siegfried Mogel, Günter Ost, Siegfried Oschatz, Alexander Westlin
Editor
Christa Bramann
Producer
DEFA-Gruppe 67
Sound
Werner Klein
Score
Hans-Dieter Hosalla
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Remembering Means Living
Remembering Means Living
Róża Berger-Fiedler
A walk across the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee and through the Jewish history of the city. The private and the historical, past and present flow into each other.
Filmstill Remembering Means Living

Remembering Means Living

Erinnern heißt Leben
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1987
59 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Róża Berger-Fiedler’s walk through the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee in search of her grandmother’s grave turns into a walk through the chequered Jewish history of the whole city. Interspersed are impressions of Chanukah celebrations at the “Restaurant of Nationalities” Café Moskau in Karl-Marx-Allee in East Berlin, light-drenched and devout. The film artfully interweaves the past and present of active Jewish life with memories of expulsion and annihilation, brings private and historical perspectives together and thus creates a sensitive approach where in the GDR formal distance was long dominant.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Script
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Cinematographer
Karl-Heinz Müller
Editor
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Eberhard Schwarz
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Women in Neuruppin
Women in Neuruppin
Karola Hattop
A naïve and pushy reporter travels to the provinces to find out about the state of equal rights in practice. A film curiosity of enlightening absurdity.
Filmstill Women in Neuruppin

Women in Neuruppin

Frauen in Neuruppin
Karola Hattop
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1972
29 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Karola Hattop juxtaposes the many media images of confident working women and the men who support them with a naïve reporter who finds out that in practice equal rights are often quite a different matter. Somewhat pushy, he seeks out women at the hairdresser’s and in the maternity wear department, joins functionaries in their cars, crashes wedding parties and sneaks into museum tours for children. A revelatory curiosity full of the casually captured mundane drabness that was often revealed more clearly in student films than in comparable DEFA productions.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Karola Hattop
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Behind Windows
Behind Windows
Petra Tschörtner
Three married couples from different milieus, united behind the windows of the same Potsdam high-rise – and in Petra Tschörtner’s interview film about longing, crisis and family.
Filmstill Behind Windows

Behind Windows

Hinter den Fenstern
Petra Tschörtner
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1984
43 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

It’s only after the separation from her husband that another man tells her how valuable she is: the Chladek family, she’s a teacher, he’s a student. The first few years were nothing but quarrels: the Surau family, he’s a plumber, she’s a postal worker. Should she really intend to get further education at evening school, he won’t accept this: the Lehmann family, he’s a locksmith, she’s a lecturer. Three thirtysomething couples live in the Potsdam high-rise behind whose windows Petra Tschörtner looked for her graduation film. Long interviews that pierce the surface at once, equally revealing and oppressive. Promptly awarded a prize at the West German Short Film Festival in Oberhausen.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Petra Tschörtner
Script
Petra Tschörtner, Fritz-Martin Barber
Cinematographer
Peter Ziesche
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Hocus-Pocus Fidibus
Hocus-Pocus Fidibus
Bärbl Bergmann
Deeply impressed by a magic show, two boys set out on an educational search for the magician: a mysterious film about the fact that there are no mysteries.
Filmstill Hocus-Pocus Fidibus

Hocus-Pocus Fidibus

Hokuspokus Fidibus
Bärbl Bergmann
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1957
15 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

In works like “Guide Dog Ruepel” (1962), Bärbl Bergmann was the first feature film director in the GDR to portray children in their often pitiless but also honest dealings with each other, something that was almost impossible in the documentary films of that period. But she also managed to sneak lessons on how to pursue educational goals with creative obstinacy into popular science films. Thus her educational piece about two boys who discover that magic, too, requires hard work, despite its rational approach, is far from disenchanting: The protagonists reach their conclusion via detours that take them through mysterious corridors, furtive looks through keyholes and bewitching dreams.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Bärbl Bergmann
Script
Bärbl Bergmann
Cinematographer
Ernst Laude
Editor
Christel Wolfrum
Producer
DEFA-Studio für populärwissenschaftliche Filme
Score
Heinz Vogt
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Once I Was a Child
Once I Was a Child
Tamara Trampe
An equally delicate and lucid observation of life in a kindergarten: the childish joy of storytelling between free development and integration into the social norms.
Filmstill Once I Was a Child

Once I Was a Child

Ich war einmal ein Kind
Tamara Trampe
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1986
17 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The interviews conducted by Tamara Trampe in a Pankow kindergarten testify to a rare attempt to enter the world of the young interviewees completely, to give their stories a space where reality and fantasy, worries and wishes can mix freely. A space that’s not always provided in the daily life of the kindergarten, as the film casually suggests even after it was toned down by the DEFA censors: toilets without doors, ghastly birthday parties and friendly but unmistakable reprimands when the children let too much dialect slip into the grammar exercise or when their pictures of soldiers are not realistic enough.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tamara Trampe
Script
Tamara Trampe
Cinematographer
Thomas Plenert
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Peter Dienst, Eberhard Pfaff
Concept
Annerose Richter
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill To Be Young, and What Else?
To Be Young, and What Else?
Gitta Nickel
Despite ideological shortcomings, the Stralsund People’s Dockyard youth brigade do excellent work. Nevertheless, the city becomes the focal point of socialist conditions of value creation.
Filmstill To Be Young, and What Else?

To Be Young, and What Else?

Jung sein – und was noch?
Gitta Nickel
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1977
49 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

High up north, in the Stralsund People’s Dockyard, Gitta Nickel encounters a youth brigade whose members speak frankly: “I’m 27 now. Judging from my own example I can say: it’s been nothing but work, really nothing. I can really say that about me, stark and stiff.” Stralsund as the focal point of socialist conditions of value creation: A ship may be completed every two weeks, but housing, let alone leisure facilities aren’t. The diagnosis: The quality-of-life to performance ratio is less than ideal. The brigade’s team spirit, though, is still strong, even if, as some think, there are some shortcomings on the “ideological side”.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gitta Nickel
Cinematographer
Niko Pawloff
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Andreas Walter
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Having Babies?
Having Babies?
Sibylle Schönemann
Starting from different life situations and private circumstances, Sibylle Schönemann addresses the complex issue of abortion in an aesthetically ambitious collage.
Filmstill Having Babies?

Having Babies?

Kinder kriegen?
Sibylle Schönemann
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1976
18 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Sibylle Schönemann’s film about abortion lets young and older women speak; women who were forced to abort by their partners or who chose to carry the baby to term despite predicted difficulties. Assembled as a kind of collage, a round table alternates with stylised passages, while the camera also shows moments in a clinic right before and after the procedure. The attitude vacillates between drama and affirmation of life. Liberal perspectives, with one exception, are left out. Schönemann, together with Tamara Trampe, almost managed to take up the complex issue in a feature film.

Felix Mende

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Director
Sibylle Schönemann
Cinematographer
Klemens Peisker
Editor
Silvia Roeser
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Sound
Andreas Walter
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Petra’s Adventure
Petra’s Adventure
Ingrid Reschke
Petra accurately notes down the events of a special day, tells us about a paperchase and a sailing boat ride. One of the first Film Academy productions, smoothly directed.
Filmstill Petra’s Adventure

Petra’s Adventure

Petras Erlebnis
Ingrid Reschke
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1956
6 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Petra looks back on an eventful day: Together with other kids she went on a paperchase, solved a few small tasks and coordinated with her assigned partner. There were some adventures, but also a classroom situation set up in a meadow where one’s knowledge of the local flora was tested. In the end, they all boarded sailing boats and glided off into an atmospheric evening. A protocol in letters, accurately drawn up at the Potsdam Pioneer House, serves as the framework for one of the first completed films of the newly founded German Academy of Film Art in Babelsberg.

Carolin Weidner

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Director
Ingrid Reschke
Script
Ingrid Reschke
Cinematographer
Kurt Marks
Producer
Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Vivos Voco – I Call the Living
Vivos Voco – I Call the Living
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Bells have long defined humanity’s rhythm. Their ringing still touches us to the marrow. Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s exploration is monumental, even eery in nature.
Filmstill Vivos Voco – I Call the Living

Vivos Voco – I Call the Living

Vivos voco – Ich rufe die Lebenden
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1981
22 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Bells ring for victim and perpetrator alike, they ring for the master and the servant, the sounds falling into each other, beginning and end, life and death, sleep and awakening, work and prayer.” Helga Schütz’s lyrical verses are closely interwoven with Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s exploration of bells and their many shapes. Whether melted down as tools of war or warning of danger – “Vivos Voco”, which also teaches us about the craft of bell founding, envelops us in an eery, monumental and epochal way. In her auto-fictional biography, Schütz writes about the collaboration with Osite-Krüger: “The two of us and the film, we were a team, we and the co-determinant images.”

Carolin Weidner

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Director
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Script
Helga Schütz
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Elmar Blimke
Score
Peter Gotthardt
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Travelling Circus
Travelling Circus
Angelika Andrees
A travelling circus, its audience and the people and animals that make up its core. An uncommon everyday life unfolds with a fine sense of rhythm and situations.
Filmstill Travelling Circus

Travelling Circus

Wanderzirkus
Angelika Andrees
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1975
24 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Rolling into the village: Circus Hein. Angelika Andrees is interested in the individual acts presented in the ring, but even more in what happens before and afterwards. Or what the audience look like from below, when various bottoms are squashed on the wooden benches. Sometimes there’s clacking and knocking, or the pattering of rain, and in the end, Bob Dylan sings. “Travelling Circus” was made when Andrees was still at the Babelsberg Film Academy. She experiments with different elements, switches tones and thus captures the moods crystallising around the travelling attraction. A portrait emerges, without commentary and with very few, short interview sequences.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Julia Kunert
Editor
Manuela Hamann
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
Sound
Andreas Walter