Banned in GDR

After a crime is committed during the Nazi era in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, the aspiring local leader, a ship owner, needs to find an executioner to kill the perpetrators and turns to a butcher.

People are sent off to a Soviet controlled uranium mine in 1950's Germany.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes." Hans and Kumpan repeatedly try to enter a town surrounded by a tall, impenetrable wall, where everyone is apparently very happy. When they finally make it inside, the tyrannical emperor demands they make him new clothes that would 'bring all creatures to their knees'. Hans and Kumpan claim only intelligent people would be able to see the clothes, so the emperor haughtily displays himself before his subjects wearing the "invisible clothes" to prove himself clever. Das Kleid was banned for ten years because of its association with the Berlin Wall and the despots surrounded by it.

DDR film from the mid-60s: Li and Al, not long married, want to divorce. They feel trapped in their marriage and in their one-room apartment. They long for an unconventional, meaningful life, but the search for meaning confounds them.

The Rabbit Is Me was made in 1965 to encourage discussion of the democratization of East German society. In it, a young student has an affair with a judge who once sentenced her brother for political reasons; she eventually confronts him with his opportunism and hypocrisy. It is a sardonic portrayal of the German Democratic Republic's judicial system and its social implications. The film was banned by officials as an anti-socialist, pessimistic and revisionist attack on the state. It henceforth lent its name to all the banned films of 1965, which became known as the "Rabbit Films." After its release in 1990, The Rabbit Is Me earned critical praise as one of the most important and courageous works ever made in East Germany. It was screened at The Museum of Modern Art in 2005 as part of the film series Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany.

August 24, 1937: a day in the life of expressionist sculptor/author Ernst Barlach. He lives in the small town of Güstrow, keeping to himself, not interested in politics. This day he learns that his sculptor in the Cathedral is gone.

Even in the political environment of Marx and Engels, it happened that bosses took short cuts to complete safety critical work ahead of schedule. When an experienced and honest engineer, Heinz Solter, gets caught up in this he blows the whistle and suffers accordingly as the system tries to get him.

The story of tensions in a factory in communist east Germany and their society more generally - mostly through the adventures of two provocative factory workers.

An idealistic teacher is shocked to discover her pupils are already cynical and opportunistic. Her colleague soon grows resentful when she uses new and challenging techniques to help her students overcome obstacles.

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.

A film about living and working conditions in the GDR of the 1960s, including a little love story, of course.

Adam receives a flashlight with special powers: every liar it shines on flies into the air. Production was canceled in 1965 due to the film's political content. Only in 1989-1990 could the director reconstruct the film, replacing missing sounds and images with script inserts.

After the death of their father, 18-year-old Helene and her little sister Asta must find their way in a radically changed life situation.

Frühjahr 1945 in einem kleinen Ort an der Ostsee. Am Strand finden der 15-jährige Günter (Gert Krause-Melzer) und ein gleichaltriger russischer Fremdarbeiter (Viktor Perewalow) einen toten Soldaten. Wenig später hetzen Günter, der immer noch an den Endsieg glaubt, und eine Schar Jugendlicher den entflohenen jungen Russen durch den Wald. Während Günter ihn stellt und ihm zuredet sich zu ergeben, erschießt der Dorfpolizist (Hans Hardt-Hardtloff) den Russen. Stolz nimmt Günter das Eiserne Kreuz entgegen und meldet sich freiwillig zum Fronteinsatz, obwohl sein Vater (Rolf Ludwig) schon im Krieg gefallen ist. Weder seine Freundin Christine (Dorothea Meissner) noch seine Mutter (Lissy Tempelhof) können ihn davon abbringen. Gleich beim ersten Einsatz wird er von einer sowjetischen Militärstreife aufgegriffen. Doch als ihr Jeep auf eine Mine fährt, überlebt Günter als einziger und flieht nach Hause. Er versteckt sich im Haus von Christines Eltern, kehrt aber zu seiner Mutter zurück, als sich Christines Vater (Norbert Christian) aus Angst vor den herannahenden russischen Truppen das Leben nimmt. Kurz nachdem die Sowjetarmee den Ort besetzt hat, wird Günter wegen Mordes an dem Fremdarbeiter verhaftet. Heiner Carows Film erzählt die letzten Tage des Zweiten Weltkriegs aus der Perspektive eines Hitlerjungen. Der Film erhielt 1968 keine staatliche Zulassung, stellt er doch keinen antifaschistischen Helden, sondern einen Mitläufer als Opfer in den Mittelpunkt und verwischt damit provokativ die Grenzen zwischen Schuld und Unschuld. Erst zwanzig Jahre später konnten die Filmemacher "Die Russen kommen" in einem aufwändigen Rekonstruktionsprozess aus den wenigen noch erhaltenen Teilen des Originalnegativs und Positivfragmenten wieder zusammenfügen. In einer erneuten Restaurierung ab 2014 fanden Experten der DEFA-Stiftung in der Arbeitskopie zahlreiche bisher nicht entdeckte Fragmente, mit denen sie den Film noch einmal völlig neu zusammensetzten.

In a small town, everyone has tried to forget what happened shortly after WWII. That is, until a stranger finds a book that Jadup (Kurt Böwe) gave to the young refugee Boel (Katrin Knappe), who resettled in the town over 30 years ago. Painful memories about Boel and the post-war period begin to surface and shake up the whole town. Boel vanished back then and nobody knew why. Word spread about a rape and some tried to blame a Russian soldier. Jadup, the town's respected and popular mayor, remembers, though, how he mistrusted Boel and did not help her through this difficult time; HE didn't even notice THAT Boel loved him. Jadup's confrontation with the past gives him a new, critical view of his current situation and surroundings. Originally censored and later banned by GDR officials for being too controversial, Jadup and Boel was not released until 1988.