The movie Armin Mueller-Stahl rather not talk about must on of the weirdest in german film history. Stylistically it borrows from Cinéma vérité and the Nouvelle Vague, content-wise it is a loyal justification of the building of the Berlin wall.
The story is a love triangle between loyal communist electrician Ulli (Mueller-Stahl) and his, corrupted by the west, foster brother Klaus (Ulrich Thein) working as a taxi driver in West Berlin. They both fall in love with postwoman Eva (Kati Székely). Ulli knows the regime is planning to build the wall and that will be the end of Klaus' job, he tries to help him find his place in communist Germany. Klaus gets Eva pregnant, Ulli goes to visit his comrades in Cuba. Upon his return Eva tells him that Klaus wants to flee East Germany. Ulli hinders his escape attempt and gets shot by a border guard. Klaus goes to jail. Once released from hospital Ulli and Eva will bring up the child loyal to the party.
The weird thing is that it tells this extremely communist loyal story, with the means of modern and western film styles. But unlike those films who often feature characters in varying shades of grey, this features purely black and white characters. Klaus is all bad he is lazy, untrustworthy and violent and so of course he can not understand why the wall needs to be build. Ulli is all good and loyal who does not even need to question the betrayal of his foster brother.
Four years later director Frank Vogel had his own films banned in East Germany in the famous 1965 mass ban of East German films. He nonetheless later directed the episode "Materna" in the other more famous Berlin Wall justification movie "Geschichten jener Nacht".
The story is a love triangle between loyal communist electrician Ulli (Mueller-Stahl) and his, corrupted by the west, foster brother Klaus (Ulrich Thein) working as a taxi driver in West Berlin. They both fall in love with postwoman Eva (Kati Székely). Ulli knows the regime is planning to build the wall and that will be the end of Klaus' job, he tries to help him find his place in communist Germany. Klaus gets Eva pregnant, Ulli goes to visit his comrades in Cuba. Upon his return Eva tells him that Klaus wants to flee East Germany. Ulli hinders his escape attempt and gets shot by a border guard. Klaus goes to jail. Once released from hospital Ulli and Eva will bring up the child loyal to the party.
The weird thing is that it tells this extremely communist loyal story, with the means of modern and western film styles. But unlike those films who often feature characters in varying shades of grey, this features purely black and white characters. Klaus is all bad he is lazy, untrustworthy and violent and so of course he can not understand why the wall needs to be build. Ulli is all good and loyal who does not even need to question the betrayal of his foster brother.
Four years later director Frank Vogel had his own films banned in East Germany in the famous 1965 mass ban of East German films. He nonetheless later directed the episode "Materna" in the other more famous Berlin Wall justification movie "Geschichten jener Nacht".
