Spur der Steine (1966)

A film about living and working conditions in the GDR of the 60's. Includes a little love story of course.

Director:

Frank Beyer

Writers:

Erik Neutsch (novel), Karl-Georg Egel (screenplay)

Stars:

Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypulkowska, Jutta Hoffmann

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Manfred Krug	...	Hannes Balla
Krystyna Stypulkowska	...	Kati Klee
Jutta Hoffmann	...	Kati Klee (voice)
Eberhard Esche	...	Werner Horrath
Johannes Wieke	...	Hermann Jansen
Walter Richter-Reinick	...	Richard Trautmann
Hans-Peter Minetti	...	Heinz Bleibtreu
Walter Jupé	...	Hesselbarth
Ingeborg Schumacher	...	Marianne Horrath
Gertrud Brendler	...	Frau Schickedanz
Helga Göring	...	Elli
Erich Mirek	...	Oswald Ziemer
Fred Ludwig	...	Wolbig
Helmut Schreiber	...	Elsbers
Erik Veldre	...	Dieter Jochmann

Storyline

Hannes Balla is the foreman of a group of building construction workers at the large construction site "Schkona" in the GDR. They spend most of their time working hard and drinking harder - to some they are fun, to some they are a public nuisance. Things get more complicated when the good-looking Kati Klee is employed as a young technician, and the ambitious new Party Secretary, Werner Horrath, aims to boost work efficiency and downsize Balla's ego. Kati slowly warms up to Werner, but is also attracted to Balla's nonconformity. A contemporary movie about work, love, and everything in between.

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Plot Keywords:

bellwether | work | building construction | building site | working class | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

East Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

1 July 1966 (East Germany)

Also Known As:

Trace of Stones

Filming Locations:

Coswig, Saxony, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Deutsche Film (DEFA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (Orwo-Kinofilm)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

While at first the film was broadly advertised in East-Germany and drew great anticipation, opposition within the Ministry of Culture (Ministerium für Kultur) grew shortly before its planned release. Posters and other advertisements were removed without further ado, and the conservative newspaper Neues Deutschland was the only one allowed to publish a review. The film's premiere (the show was sold out and Frank Bayer and the main cast were present) was disrupted by audience members shouting denounciations during the screening. The same was true for most of the screenings in Berlin and other cities. It is believed that these protests were secretly organized by the Ministry of Culture, as they resulted in the film disappearing from theaters within three days. "Spur der Steine" was classified as hostile to the party (the SED) and to East-Germany as a whole and was not screened again until October 1989.

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Connections

Featured in Century of Cinema: Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)

User Reviews

As dull as East German reality

Yes, I am well aware of the fact this movie was in some way "seminal" and was banned in the former GDR for a very long time. Nonetheless it is a quite sluggish and dull film, as dull and boring as the stuffy East German state with its peculiar preachy economy of scarcity in general. Besides, it is at least half an hour too long in its runtime, with many irrelevant scenes and - let's be outright - a couple of characters you don't really care about. Manfred Krug is as good as always, a true professional actor, but the story is not at all captivating. So let's not interpret too many cinematic ideas into this movie. It's simply a fairly dull piece of art that had the chance of being politically adverse to socialist mainstream back in 1966. Otherwise nobody would be discussing it any more today.