While studying the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia, a historian decides to restore the good name of one of the revolutionaries, who was accused of betrayal by his comrades-in-arms and committed suicide.
Silvia's career as an actress goes into decline after a few unfortunate statements recorded with a microphone hidden in his dressing room. On the other hand, we detected a serious disease to her daughter.
In August of 1914, amidst the public ecstasy surrounding the impending war, Hans Gastl, the young son of a Munich bürger, makes a decision: he will not take part in this war. This resolution signifies a turning point in his life; a farewell to his class and his family.
A Saxon village in 1792: While the Prussians go against France, the haymaking takes place in the village and the resolute Marthe catches her daughter Ev with the village blacksmith Ruprecht in the hay.
In 18th century Bohemia, the mercenary troops of a cruel duke roam the countryside. A cap maker who defends himself against injustice is thrown into prison. His ten-year-old son tries to free his father with the help of his friends of the same age and a magic cap, but the duke's henchmen are soon...
Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who had thirteen children. Since the farmer was so poor, there was never anything left for the youngest of the family. Therefore, the farmer chose Death as the godfather of his son, Jörg, because all people are equal in the eyes of Death. The Grim Reaper...
The deputy editor-in-chief of an SPD newspaper in West Germany, Karl Waldner, recognizes the former Henlein leader Meißner, who is guilty of the murder of his father, at a meeting of Sudeten Germans. He wants to open the case and hand Meißner over to the courts. But he encounters resistance, even...
Philipp is a small boy, who other guys pick on, because he's not as large as them. But when a musician gives him a magical flute, he can make objects bigger or smaller.
Who hasn't dreamed the sweet dream of the land of milk and honey, where roast pigeons fly into your mouth? But even the fairy tale makes it clear that such effortless indulgence is unhealthy because it makes you unproductive and unfit for life. Heinrich Mann discovers the land of milk and honey not...
Nina Kern, a divorced woman in her late twenties, will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced due to Nina’s many years of willful neglect. Although she has broken her promise to change her moral conduct many times, she...
In 1914 Berlin, bank heiress Leonore Wahl and struggling Munich student Werner Bertin fall passionately in love, defying class and her parents’ expectations. Their idyll is shattered by the outbreak of WWI: Werner, swept up in patriotic fervor, is conscripted to the Western Front, while Leonore,...
Ernst Triebel, a young doctor from the GDR, meets his childhood sweetheart, whom he thought was dead, on the last day of his stay in Santos. During the crossing to Europe, he tells engineer Franz Hammer his love story with the girl he now believes he has seen again.
This story of the miller Florian, who gave all his money to the war against Napoleon, is loosely based on a true story. After the war, Florian's reimbursement is challenged, and he must also pay taxes on his destroyed mill. He resists the tax collectors and takes off to Vienna, where he intends to...
Two farmers, Grimm and Melcher, were once on friendly terms, but a petty argument over a piece of land has since turned them into implacable enemies. Their two children- Veronika and Fabian- used to be childhood friends. When they meet again as young adults, they instantly fall in love, despite the...
In the middle of the 18th Century, the Ruster family immigrates to America. The father, a former farm laborer, leads a hard life as a settler along with his family. One day the nine year-old George, his second-youngest son, is kidnapped by Iroquois. He is taken in by an Indian family in the place...
The young shepherd Konrad wants to ask the princess to marry him. All the exhortations of the kitchen maid Anne are to no avail. With the help of a magic flute, Konrad solves all the tasks set by the king and the princess. In doing so, he recognizes the princess's true character and so he decides...
Sitting at her typewriter, listening to tango music, she dreams. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are far away, a different world where, long ago, the tango came into being. A dream about dance and music, as well as about unfulfilled desire and wanderlust behind the Berlin Wall.
The only documentary ever made by DEFA on the topic of homosexuality was this public education film commissioned by the Hygiene Museum Dresden and produced in cooperation with East German gay and lesbian activists. In interviews, GDR lesbians and gay men talk openly about their first sexual...
