Roland Gräf

Originally banned in 1966, East German director Jürgen Böttcher's tale of love and disillusionment among two newlyweds attempting to navigate the treacherous world of marriage was never officially released in his homeland until after reunification in 1990.

Long-haul driver Hannes picks up a young hitchhiker, Herb, who had a falling-out with his parents after dropping out of college and now travels around doing odd jobs. After a series of adventures, they are joined by Johanna and her child, who missed their bus and need a ride to Berlin. Johanna has left her husband so that he can reflect on their broken relationship and both men gradually begin to fall in love with her.

The King of Malabunt has won another war, after decorating himself and his three wooden marshals, he dismisses his army with a low wages. One of his soldiers protest this and is thrown into jail, but he swears to someday return and take all the wealth of the king.

Three people from very different walks of life meet at a large construction site. Young, unmarried, self-confident construction manager Linda Hinrichs dedicates herself completely to her work and enjoys living more independently then most women. Daniel, a student works on the construction site to make money during his summer holiday, and impresses Linda with his spontaneous energy and idealism. Brigadier Böwe, an older, divorced man works his way from one construction site to the other and has lost his own personal happiness on the path to developing what was seen as officially suitable social standards. Both men try to win Linda over, not realizing that they are taking her freedom away from her.

The group council leader of 7b, Punkt, has a hard time because General sets the tone in the class - with stupid pranks. The new kid, Küßchen, is quite different. He likes tinkering and has his own field telephone. General and his gang want to get one over on him and build a pitfall, but it's not Küßchen who falls in, but a lieutenant from the NVA. He breaks his arm and Küßchen visits him in hospital. Betrayal, the others think. But the two become friends and the lieutenant helps the children build an amateur radio station. The general who joins them is interested. He entices Küßchen to use the radio illegally, which brings the police onto the scene. And now the general shows that he is a decent guy after all.

When Dr. Schmith's proposal for international research on infant mortality is rejected, he decides to leave East Germany and strikes a deal with an escape agency that promises him a leading position at a children's hospital in West Germany. But then the decision is reversed: the project is approved and his international colleagues want Dr. Schmith to head the GDR section. Moreover, he falls in love with his new colleague, Katharina. Schmith initially tries to ignore the arrangements he made with the escape agency, but they blackmail him. Things soon turn deadly...

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 relations worsen and finally plunge Barbara into a crisis - shortly before their seventh wedding anniversary. At this very point a child dies in hospital, prompting Barbara to ask herself in desperation if - and for how long she can put up with the double burden of career and family. On top of this, she notices that Gunter is starting to compare her to other women.

Winter 1968. Historian Dr. Dallow is released from prison. He is still trying to cope with and understand why he was put behind bars for 21 months for defamation of the state. His supposed "crime:" for five minutes he accompanied a cabaret chanson on the piano. The film shows what "ordinary socialism" was like, letting the audience feel the threat under which the people in the GDR had to live over many years.

On a forest road in the Brandenburg March, village teacher Potsch accidentally encounters the distinguished Professor Menzel, who got stuck there in his car. In the conversation that ensues, Menzel and Pötsch quickly discover that they both are great admirers of the early 19th-century writer Max von Schwedenow who was born in the area.

Egon Brümmer and his half-strong "boys" are an integral part of the Borkenheide Musical Club. When the manager of the clubhouse forbids them to rehearse in his rooms, Egon and his friend Paul react by hitting on the visitors to a nearby Christmas party. Both are sentenced to six months in prison without parole for assault. When Egon gets out of prison, he wants to leave his old life behind him. He tries to avoid the boys, but they don't understand his change of heart. He starts working as an unskilled laborer on a building site, just as he did before he went to prison. At a graduation ball, Egon meets Christine Lange, who wants to study medicine. Her friends call her the "eighth wonder of the world" because it would be a miracle if she were to fall in love. Egon pretends to be a construction specialist and the two dance together.

The story of a young, idealistic doctor and his on-the-job training as a rookie surgeon. Dr. Heiner Sommer moves to a small town in the GDR where he will complete his training under the senior physician, also named Dr. Sommer.

Karin, who is in her mid-thirties, works as registrar but has been divorced for several years. Together with her 16-year old daughter Nora, she leads a happy and independent life. Then, she finds a new partner in the mathematician Peter, but does not tell her daughter about him. When Peter proposes marriage, Karin always comes up with new excuses why such a step is still too early for her. She mainly fears that Nora would not be able to cope with another marriage of her mother. But when Peter cannot be dissuaded anymore by her excuses and finally wants to marry her, Karin comes up with a bizarre plan.

This biographical film is set in 1937, with Fallada suffering the effects of living under a microscope. The film details his decline, as he is intermittently imprisoned and threatened in order to motivate him to write for the Fatherland. Even the attention of his kind, patient wife and loving children begin to feel oppressive to him. This is one of the few films to take a serious, in-depth look at the tribulations of a creative artist pulled in all different directions by the real world.

1942. The members of the Voß family, mother, two daughters, a daughter-in-law, and a son-in-law, are living in a house at the river. A fellow soldier of son Paul, who fights at the eastern front, delivers his greetings and an embroidered Russian blouse for Emmi, Paul′s wife. Daughter Agnes, whose husband is also fighting in the war, receives a fur vest from the junior partner who is stalking her. Obviously, the vest is also loot from the eastern front. When the family receives news that Emmi′s husband has been killed in action, the war finally enters the house at the river. Emmi commits suicide while Agnes′s husband returns as a cripple from the war front. At home, he has to learn what a price his wife had to pay for the "Russian fur".

19-year old Peter is working to gain practical experience for his planned medical studies. But his life turns into confusion as he unexpectedly comes a father.

Germany in May 1945: the war is over, men are returning home and a new life begins in the villages. After 12 years in a concentration camp, the "Red Shoemaker" also returns to his home village. His wife is dead and others live in his house: Gebhardt, an employee on the farm of the large farmer Winter, and his family. The "Red Shoemaker" comes to stay with Hübner and his daughter Agnes. Over the past terrible years, he had repeatedly felt the hatred within him and wanted to take revenge on those who had sent him to the concentration camp. But now he wants to look to the future and takes on the position of mayor here in the village. He works to ensure that the village is supplied with food and tries to ensure that the fascist ideology disappears from people's minds. In doing so, he also makes enemies.

For thirty years, Karl Achilles has been working at the chemical collective in Bitterfeld. But now his last day as a master at the plant has come. He is about to retire; even if Karl, who finds ending his working life difficult, wanted to stay on, it would not be possible. Karl’s colleagues have arranged a farewell dinner for the retiring master at an outdoor restaurant. But on his last day of work, before the farewell dinner, he meets all sorts of people: both colleagues and people, who do not work at the plant. A mosaic of the biography of a person who found fulfilment in his work and now has to look for the meaning of his life anew.

When he reaches age 18, Peter is released from the children's home where he grew up, but this does not mean he is truly ready for adult life.