The Man with the Objective Lens

Film by Frank Vogel.

In 1794 Bützow, widow Hornborstel, a top goose breeder, presses Mayor Hane to marry her. Rebuffed, he bans free‐range geese under a “goose edict.” Enraged, she enlists revolutionary‐minded Magister Albus to rally citizens. They rise for goose freedom, the duke deposes Hane, installs a new mayor, and Albus escapes across the border.

Europe, 1620: The well-known astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, who teaches as a professor in Linz, receives the message that his mother is prosecuted as a witch in Württemberg. The truth behind the allegations is rather simple: His mother has been denunciated by a former friend after an argument with the authorities. Kepler tries desperately to convince the prosecutors of the absurdity of their allegations with rational arguments.

The construction of five houses for a workers' housing cooperative has been delayed due to a shortage of workers. It is winter and it is foreseeable that the houses will be completed in the fall at the latest. However, this takes too long for the young electrician Gustav. He is frustrated and wants to finally live within his own four walls. So far, he and his wife Christl, a sales clerk, have been subletting from his parents-in-law. One day, he receives a visit from his Aunt Minne, who informs him that he has inherited an apartment building worth 12,000 marks from his deceased Aunt Erna. He rejoices, as a house is even better than an apartment and he no longer needs to be a member of the building cooperative. The house turns out to be a dilapidated old building with no furniture and no water or electricity. Christl refuses to move into the building and begs Gustav to turn down the inheritance.

Berlin at the end of the 1940s. Anneliese Weyher is working as a switchboard operator. She is living with her aunt after losing her parents in the war – a stroke of fate that has thrown the young woman off course emotionally. Indifferently, she is doing her work; her private life consists of an affair with a black-marketeer. Even when Anneliese witnesses an armed robbery, committed by infamous Wollnick and his gang, she stays lethargic and apathetic – she keeps silent instead of helping the inspector who is a friend of her aunt. It is not until Anneliese by coincidence meets her former lover, the watchmaker Kurt, that her life seems to take a positive turn.

High-school senior Peter considers the adults around him to be hypocritical, self-congratulatory, and immersed in the past. He gets suspended for writing an essay that his teachers consider to be a challenge to the state. Just Don't Think I'll Cry became one of twelve films and film projects-almost an entire year's production-that were banned in 1965-1966 due to their alleged anti-socialist aspects. Although scenes and dialogs were altered and the end was reshot twice, officials condemned this title as "particularly harmful." In 1989, cinematographer Ost restored the original version, and this and most of the other banned films were finally screened in January 1990. Belatedly, they were acclaimed as masterpieces of critical realism.

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.

Four directors - four styles - four episodes, all relating the events of a single night which has entered the history books: August 12-13, 1961. There are thousands of complex narratives connected with the frontier drawn through the middle of Berlin, and each episode relates the story of a difficult decision made on that night...

The stubborn old skipper Heinrich Borchert refuses to recognize the progress of the new era. Sailing for the DSU is out of the question for him. He is a private ship owner - and will remain so! In order to pay off the mortgage on his barge "Marie", he takes more cargo on board than is reasonable and risks a dangerous draught in the shallow waters of the Havel. Neither his friend Hermann Vollbeck, also an old bargeman but sailing for the DSU, nor the protests of his son Karl can dissuade him. After all, Borchert is only doing all this for Karl, who is supposed to take over the boat one day and have a better life. He, on the other hand, has other ideas about life. Instead of just being a slave to the ship or having to deal with debts, he wants to have time for more enjoyable things alongside his work.

On August 13th, 1961 - the night that the Berlin Wall goes up - three people must make a decision that will change their lives forever.