Andreas Bergmann

Martin Brandt (1903-1989), an unforgettable Jewish actor and former member of the Jewish Kulturbund Theater in Berlin, recites from Macbeth and Nathan the Wise, the play that opened the theater in October 1933. These last filmic images of Brandt are combined with historic footage and traces of the Jewish past in Berlin.

Through very personal statements by the protagonists, the film provides an insight into the individual form of (romantic) relationships of young heterosexual adults (15 to 19 years old according to the commentary) and, at the end, focuses against the premature acceptance of sexual relationships. It reveals itself to be an interview film with couples who went on a tandem tour together for the film and were "spontaneously willing" to talk about their relationship.

Biographical notes on the American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976). At the height of his fame and skill, Robeson’s career was cut short by Cold War anti-communist hysteria. This documentary includes historic footage of the US civil rights movement; clips of Robeson’s speeches, performances and visits to East Germany (GDR) and the Soviet Union; and interviews with his son, Paul Robeson Jr., and the musicians and activists Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger and Earl Robinson. Co-produced by the GDR’s DEFA Studio for Documentary Film and the West Berlin production company Chronos, with scenes shot in the U.S.

This educational film is aimed at 12 to 15-year-old boys and girls and depicts the attitudes and experiences of this age group in relation to their first sexual and partner experiences.

Paul Celan’s poem echoes. A drive reveals a long-abandoned Gründerzeit villa in ruin. Inside, a woman in elegant WWI attire dances, then slumps in mourning. After the war she cleans, reappears in 1930s riding clothes amid radio discontent as a maid and housekeeper move through the halls. Mourning returns with WWII’s end. Post-war, she dances to American rhythms, breastfeeds under Soviet-occupation broadcasts. Beatles and Pink Floyd play as a woman in overalls emerges, memories of the century flooding her mind. She climbs into a Trabant Kübel, helmet beside her, determined to give the villa a new life.

The film sheds light on the topic of the high divorce rate among young people in the form of journalistic statements and scenes as well as analytically reflected statements and statements of experience by sociologist Dr. Ursula Hempel, divorced and single mother of two adolescent children, and her cousin, a puppeteer who is also divorced.

Sandra, a pub landlady, meets Otis, a travel agent. The two initially clash as they learn more about each other from overheard phone calls than they would like. But they get talking, discover an amazing affinity and find each other to be valuable love advisors for their personal relationship problems. When Sandra's husband Christian meets Otis' best friend Bill by chance one day, the emotional chaos is perfect.

Because of trouble at school, 16-year old Isabell's single mum persuades her to take part in a self-knowledge seminar in the Sudeten Mountains. What begins as an unusual holiday adventure in an esoteric group, changes when one of the participants has a mental breakdown and disappears. Has the young woman left or is she the victim of a crime? Isabell is alarmed and begins to investigate the seminar and the other members. Her enquiries are met with a wall of silence. When the mutilated body of the woman who disappeared turns up, Isabell's stay at the wildly romantic resort becomes a nightmare.