East Berlin, shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kurt Schröder and his family dig a tunnel to escape to West Berlin as they struggle to overcome the obstacles blocking their underground path to freedom.
Peter Pan is an adolescent boy who has escaped from his parents to the dreamland of Nowhere. Peter is determined to remain a little boy forever; because the adult world does not please him at all. Together with the fairy Tinkerbell, Peter Pan lures the girl Wendy and her two brothers John and...
Set during the rise of the Nazi regime, Elisabeth Maurer and Hans Wieland enjoy successful careers as actors in Berlin. Confident in her career, Elisabeth, who is Jewish, ignores the advice of a colleague to leave Germany in the face of increasing anti-Semitism. Believing that he can protect her if...
Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful...
The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in...
Doris Putzke is fond of dating men in her quest to find the perfect one. In her brief relationships, she goes from one disillusionment to another, constantly deluding herself about the intentions of her lovers.
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,...
Karin (Eva Bartok) is a brilliant student whose good looks give her an added advantage in assuming the role of a prostitute and exploring Berlin's thriving sex industry. Hired posthaste by nefarious Madame Clavius, the pretty blonde sets about gathering information for her thesis when she discovers...
In 50s Canada, trapper Jacques Monge is a freedom-loving adventurer. But when he falls in love with Hannah, a farmer's daughter, he stirs up trouble within his family.
A man is accused of murdering his wife. The state prosecutor assumes he did the deed to spend more time with his lover. But the woman in question says that his wife committed suicide in her presence and that the accused is innocent. Despite the objections of the prosecutor, the accused is set free...
After a line of mischief Philip Gale, an American sailor, is lured into hiring on the "Yorikke", a tramp cargo, by Lawski, a stoker from Poland. Still, the two become friends within the motley crew of losers from all nations. Gale and his new companion soon are more than disillusioned: the...
The famous singer Roberto Ricci wants to save himself from his overly intrusive female fans with a fake marriage. Mr. Praxl from the marriage institute Eros finds him his own granddaughter Gertie, who works as a waitress and wants to finance her own singing and dancing career with the fee for the...
A large German city at the beginning of the 1960s. This is where the well-to-do Berger family lives. Outwardly a bourgeois idyll, but behind the scenes the family is in turmoil. The relationship between father and son in particular is extremely tense. Martin Berger is seduced by the attractive...