In 1920 Moscow, a wounded Red Guard paints “Blue Horses on Red Grass” to symbolize hope he’ll never see. He presents it to a gravely ill Lenin amid famine, inspiring Lenin to reaffirm his legacy and resolve as he leads Bolsheviks in rationing scarce food for the city’s survival.
Electronic data processing is an absolute must in the Information Age. Karl Hoppe, the director of a large plant, is aware of this need for modernization and hires mathematician Dr. Jochen Bernhardt to install computerized systems which are supposed to calculate ways in which the plant could be run...
The young Walter Retzlow, drafted into the guard team of a foreign labor factory in the last year of the war, receives the papers of a murdered anti-fascist by chance. He adopts the new identity, which promises him security.
Frieda and August Walkowiak celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. However, the marriage has been in crisis for some time. August wants to spend his old age in peace, while Frieda has no intention of giving up her position as LPG chairman. The problems in the countryside are huge,...
In 1945, Ernst Machner returns home from the war in his mid-20s. Tuche would like him to weave for a living, but his comrades persuade him to become a young teacher instead.
Set during the Thirty Years' War between 1624 and 1636, film tells the story of the sutler Anna Fierling, known as Mother Courage, who tries to make her fortune from the war and loses her three children in the process.
The real blue is the color with which potter Benito Guerrero makes his fortune. When he no longer receives the color from Germany as a result of the Second World War, he and his family's existence are threatened. However, with the help of his inventive cousin Ruben, he manages to bring his real...
A detailed reconstruction of the censorship case against the landmark Weimar-era communist film, Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World? (1932). Directed by Slatan Dudow, the crew and cast included left-wing luminaries, such as playwright Bertolt Brecht, composer Hanns Eisler and balladeer Ernst Busch....
The thirty year old bee is a daredevil, everything seems to work for him. But suddenly a tragic event tears him out of his carelessness. In the explosion of a carbide furnace in operation, a colleague is killed.
Dr. Barbara Heim, a heart surgeon, and Gunter Heim, a well-known actor, have been married for seven years. They have a six-year-old daughter. Both partners are totally taken up by their work which is physically and mentally demanding. So there is little time left for family life and the strained...
Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.
Abel Hradscheck, the owner of an inn in the Oderbruch country, faces financial ruin. For this state of affairs, Ursula, his wife and former actress, is by no means free of blame. She is a "newcomer" to the area and even after eleven years in the area, still a "stranger". A Cracow company announces...
Plumber Martin and his younger colleague Frank are on call on Christmas Eve of all days. Frank's girlfriend Regina, who is expecting her first baby at any moment, is anything but thrilled. But it doesn't help, duty is duty. One emergency call follows another, but this evening it's not just broken...
Maria is a record saleswoman by profession. She is lucky to have a job, because the year is 1930 and a major economic crisis has hit the world, accompanied by an army of unemployed people, especially in Germany. Maria is aware of her good fortune; in order to secure it, she has to do without many...
Victory and demise of the first proletarian dictatorship in the history of mankind, about the struggling, bleeding workers of Paris who enthusiastically defend their historical initiative. The little Cabet family from Rue Pigalle and their friends let the spectator participate in the action.
A refugee from a Nazi concentration camp is discovered by some boys in WWII Berlin. They provide him with food and help him to continue his flight. Later one of the boys, the son of a communist, is charged with theft, arrested and sent to a concentration camp.
Paul Pospischiel loses his job in the great colliery collapse in the Ruhr, retrains and builds a new life for himself. One day, he receives a letter from his mother, which tears him from his comfort zone and triggers a serious conflict. She has discovered the man who sent his father to a...