Spur der Zeiten - Der Regisseur Frank Beyer

This straightforward account of Beyer, who appears to have been East Germany's most prominent film director (Konrad Wolf could give him some competition) mainly serves to show me how little I know about his work. Only Spur der Steine, circulated after the Wall come down because of the 1966 ban, and Nikolaikirche which was tucked away in a small auditorium at the Sydney Film Festival and still managed to make it into the audience poll, have reached here.

The work is basically a long interview, with Beyer sitting in a chair, and clips of his work dropped in the appropriate places. Recognisable performers Senta Berger, Hans Christian Blech and Armin Mueller-Stahl show up unidentified. Beyer's disillusion with the Marxist state along with his ambition to make work of high seriousness make an interesting conflict.