The GDR (German Democratic Republic) may have been a laughably-named police state, but there's no doubt that DEFA had some first-rate film-makers (Kurt Maetzig, Konrad Wolf, Frank Beyer etc.) and produced some fine work.
"The Second Track" is, like Andrzej Munk's "Man on the Track", an intriguing mystery set among railway workers, but very different. Walter Brock sees two colleagues stealing from a train, and reports that he can identify one. That's Erwin Runge, but when faced with Runge in a line-up Brock says he was mistaken. Runge then incites the other thief, young Frank, to get close to Brock's daughter, and the young couple start digging, with Vera finding out her real surname is Merkel (Angela Merkel grew up in the GDR.) The film progresses to tragedy and an ambiguous ending. One can't help wondering why, since both Brock/Merkel and Runge behaved shamefully in WW2, they didn't both just keep very quiet. The cynical answer, I suppose, is that then there would have been no film. Despite this basic flaw "The Second Track" is a satisfying film, devoid of Communist propaganda, and makes me want to see Kunert's best-known film "The Adventures of Werner Holt."
BTW, Annkathrin Burger, who played Vera, is still alive. Fortunately the GDR isn't.
"The Second Track" is, like Andrzej Munk's "Man on the Track", an intriguing mystery set among railway workers, but very different. Walter Brock sees two colleagues stealing from a train, and reports that he can identify one. That's Erwin Runge, but when faced with Runge in a line-up Brock says he was mistaken. Runge then incites the other thief, young Frank, to get close to Brock's daughter, and the young couple start digging, with Vera finding out her real surname is Merkel (Angela Merkel grew up in the GDR.) The film progresses to tragedy and an ambiguous ending. One can't help wondering why, since both Brock/Merkel and Runge behaved shamefully in WW2, they didn't both just keep very quiet. The cynical answer, I suppose, is that then there would have been no film. Despite this basic flaw "The Second Track" is a satisfying film, devoid of Communist propaganda, and makes me want to see Kunert's best-known film "The Adventures of Werner Holt."
BTW, Annkathrin Burger, who played Vera, is still alive. Fortunately the GDR isn't.