Hans-Eckardt Wenzel

In a loose set of cabaret pieces, Steffen Mensching and Hans-Eckardt Wenzel - highly acclaimed East German poets, songwriters and clowns - satirize East German life in its final days and the arrival of new times after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The clowns are allowed to leave prison to sing for people outside. As they perform their pieces, however, the country sinks into rebellion, the prison is attacked and looted, and the people chase the clowns away. Latest from the Da-Da-R was the first film made by an artistic production group that had fought for independence within the structures of the state-owned DEFA film studio for years. "Da-Da-R" is a wordplay on the irreverent Dada art movement of the 1920s and the German acronym for East Germany- the DDR.

The film looks both back and forward, examining traditions, ruptures, and reinventions. It recounts the struggle for survival in the years following German reunification, the unique role of *junge Welt* as a national Marxist daily newspaper, and its place within the Left movement—as well as the repression, resistance, and visions for the future it has encountered. It is a portrait of the newspaper, the last three decades of its history, and the people who create it.

Two men sit on the top of a roof, playing the tuba. They continually call out absurd messages making fun of official solutions and of their own slogans. The residents feel disturbed by the tuba's sound and start to attack the musicians, while they themselves keep on playing and shouting louder and louder. Finally the house is blasted and the tubas are destroyed.