Carlo Kluge

In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.

The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views. Trying to remain "a non-political man," he withdraws from reality and becomes a Nazis laborer.

Biographical movie about Julius Robert Mayer (1814-1878), a surgeon and town doctor in Heilbronn, who studied heat for many years and was the first to correctly formulate the basic principles of the theory of mechanical heat and the principle of conservation of energy. Competing Prussian scientists laugh at him, and his life is full of misunderstandings and persecution. The film tells of his fate and his long and futile struggle for recognition of the results of his scientific work.

A young married couple - both of them actors - work in the divided city of Berlin. Agnes, the young woman, is on location in East Berlin, and Jochen, her husband, works at the Westend Theater in West Berlin. This young marriage is in danger of breaking up as they vehemently defend their diametrically opposed views. The way they see politics, art and the world differs extremely.

The film tells the life story of Louise Otto Peters, who in the middle of the XIX century in Germany for the first time raised a voice of protest against the unfair treatment of women and their labor. She created the first "women's newspaper" in Germany. The daughter of a famous lawyer, Louise could have easily arranged her life by marrying the wealthy Baron Rodern. But she chose a different purpose in life - to fight for equal rights for women. Through her articles and public speeches, she won the authority and respect of ordinary people.

GDR and West Berlin in the 1950s. Hans Nettermann, a designer at the "Komet" bicycle factory, is a favorite of the BSG road riders. His dream is to one day ride in a stand-up race. A construction error throws him back in the road race. They work for a long time to fix it. Then he is persuaded to go to West Berlin to become a professional rider. Although he makes it to the top class, he also learns about the scams in professional sport. He marries Marianne, who has followed him and tries to persuade him to return to the GDR, which he eventually does. After some difficulties at work, he is nominated for the first amateur endurance race in the GDR and wins.

East Germany's contribution to the 1957 Cannes Film Festival was the wartime melodrama Betrogen bis zum Juengsten Tag. Had the film been released in the U.S., the title would probably have translated to Duped Till the Last. The film condemns the Nazi mindset by concentrating on a particularly odious cover-up. When his son is involved in the accidental killing of a girl, a Gestapo general pulls strings to save the boy from prosecution. The general manages to pin the blame for the killing on a group of Russians, whereupon he gives the men under his command carte blanche to round up and execute as many innocent Russians as they wish. This act of brutality is contrasted with the pangs of guilt suffered by the son and his co-conspirators.

1944: Geneviève and René live in occupied Paris. They love each other, and the young woman looks fearfully at René's activities in the Resistance. She wants to stay out of it, and sometimes there are arguments about it. After one such argument, René goes to a meeting with a German comrade. While he is away, the Gestapo come to the house to take the resistance fighter Louise away. Geneviève intervenes and is arrested. The men of the resistance are very worried as she knows about a planned bridge demolition. René trusts her, and Geneviève does indeed withstand the torture. The bridge can be blown up as planned, contributing to a decisive defeat for the German army.