Old Masters

A raindrop falls from a leaf and seeps into the earth. Within, it is permeated by beauty, cruelty, happiness and sadness.

Young birds are kept in line, but one of them insists on facing another direction. Being grassed by his comrades, he is visited by their master, who will try to reeducate him.

A man and his donkey rescue someone from a crevice, who repays the man with gold and the donkey with sugar. Later, they hear another cry for help and proceed to a second rescue.

A wolf wants to catch a sheep. The flock is well guarded. He puts on a sheepskin, but the animals laugh at him. So he dresses up completely as a sheep, practicing his gait and bleating. When he goes hunting in this disguise, he is eaten by another wolf.

A small man sits on a station bench. A chunky, initially polite guy joins him, uses his newspaper, eats his travel provisions on the train, follows him and harasses him on the bus, in the cab, in his house, makes himself at home. When the harassed man calls the police, the patrol arrests him and the ruffian triumphs. The little boy is released. Now he is helplessly at the mercy of the intruder's harassment and is thrown out the door by him.

Kafka watches a waitress nibbling from a little pot that she has to serve to somebody. Kafka is outraged and complains about it. The girl gets sentenced to stoning and he complains again and regrets what he has done befoe. When he is not able to stop people throwing stones at her, he committs suicide. However, people help the girl to get up and she continues her usual work.

A very little man attacks two huge feet and fights with all his power against them until his downfall. While dying, he is still convinced that he is the winner. However, the feet continue running like nothing happened.

A cage is searching for a bird, but all its efforts fail. Without its help, a bird finds a way in. The cage closes its door and stands proudly on a pedestal, for it is now worthy of admiration.

A man tries his hardest to turn a large winged screw. He succeeds. The picture opens with a crack: the screw is stuck in the back of a huge woman who begins to dance. The little man jumps away in horror.

Sisyphus has been condemned by Zeus to roll a stone up the mountain. With difficulty he moves it upwards, the colossus regularly rolls back. Sisyphus ages, the stone weathers. They are attuned to each other. Sisyphus accidentally pushes too hard and the stone rolls over the hilltop into the abyss. Sisyphus misses the stone.

A man energetically crushes stones into gravel with a hammer, while in another part of the workshop, a woman forms gravel into stone blocks with equal enthusiasm.

Is he the dream prince? As each frog climbs out of the fountain, the princess hopes it will be the one, the love of her life. But no sooner has one been flung against the wall than it turns out to be pretty much a washout. Will the frogman be able to live up to the empty promise of the frogs? … The Truth About the Frog Prince was produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Films in Dresden, where director Sieglinde Hamacher worked for 35 years, joining soon after its founding in 1955.

A beetle flees from a bird. There is no hiding place where it is safe from its pursuer. It hides in a dark crevice where the bird's beak cannot reach. The beetle laughs at the bird. It has not yet realized that it is sitting in the space between the earth and the sole of a man's shoe.