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- 18-year old-Georg and 13-year-old Barbara played together as children; later, play becomes love, which leads to a catastrophe, as their parents are hostile, leading to a report being filed to the court, as Barbara is underage.
- Life changes dramatically for a Czech housemaid when the family coachman gives her three magical hazelnuts.
- 1934, Germany. Jan is a 13 year old boy, who is raised without a mother. His father, a communist, is accused of a political murder, and predicted to be shot by the police when he was on the run. Jan lives with his aunt and finds a friend, Max, who wants to help him to find out what really with his father happened. During a conspirative gathering Max is shot by SA (Nazi paramilitary) and Jan succeed to escape in a barge. Erika, the daughter of the captain of the barge, and a boatman hide him. They try to help Jan to escape from police and find his father, who really survived.
- Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they're together - but their short flights from the burdens of reality are once and again interrupted by Paul's ties to family and career.
- Eight space cargo-ships disappear without a trace within three days. And the orbit station "Margot" has suddenly fallen silent. The space council is faced with a mystery and the scientist in charge, Maria Scholl, sees no other solution than ordering a total flight stop to this mysterious sector of space. Her colleague, Prof. Tal seems to be suspicious since he knows things before they are even released. A forbidden look into his personal file brings to light that Tal was part of the Eolomea project that never found approval of the commission in charge.
- Little Sabine has spent her childhood in an orphanage after her parents died in a car accident. When one of the women in charge at the orphanage, Edith, leaves to have a baby, Sabine runs away, because Edith was the only adult there she could trust. She then wanders through the city to find someone to take her in. She meets a lot of people on her journey, but she seems out of place everywhere she goes until, at last, she realizes that there is a special place where she belongs.
- 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.
- A disillusioned single mother decides to give love one last chance.
- A village must be destroyed for coal mining. Henning, a 15-year-old boy who wants to visit his grandfather again, realizes that nothing will be the same anymore.
- 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.
- The 15-year-old Kurbel, lives in a village in Lausitz and feels really grown up. He is tall and strong, tolerates plenty of rhubarb wine and he has already kissed.
- Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rotkaeppchen. She lived with her father and mother at the edge of a village, and often visited her grandmother on the other side of the woods. Her rabbit friend, Haeschen, lives with Grandmother and was sent one day to fetch medicine and milk from Rotaeppchen and her mother. Although her mother was reluctant to allow her to visit Grandmother alone, Rotkaeppchen convinces her that she will be safe with Haeschen. Together they set out through the woods. Unfortunately, there were many distractions in the woods: mushrooms to pick and Rotkaeppchen's other playmate, the bear. There are also the dangerous fox and wolf, who plotted to capture Rotkaeppchen and eat her. Haeschen did his best to keep them safe, but he could not prevent the wolf from eating Grandmother . . . and also Rotkaeppchen! Who will save them? The DEFA version of Rotkaeppchen differs from the Grimms' version in some minor areas: the mother plays a greater role in the film; DEFA has the father save the day, rather than the huntsman; the wolf does not die at the end, though he is carried away by the family; the second encounter with the wolf at the end of the original tale is left out; and a few animal characters are added (Haeschen, Baer, and das Eichhoernchen). All the animals (other than the Eichhoernchen) are played by people in animal costumes, and Jochen Bley as Haeschen was the big hit with critics and viewers alike. Both warmly and critically received by the press upon its release, Rotkaeppchen followed closely on the heels of the very successful Schneewittchen; hence, in some cases, the disappointment. Many reviews cited Goetz Friedrich's background in theater (both in positive and negative interpretations) to explain the spare, two-dimensional feel of the set. Yet nearly all commented positively on the color and interesting characters, and the Progress press materials summed up the morals for the viewers to learn: "Do what you are told, but act independently when it is necessary; never leave the path, especially the path that your friends have marked with love and experience; be brave, fight against evil, help your friends." Since its release, Rotkaeppchen has become one of the most popular DEFA fairy tale films.
- East German film about the history of Red Orchestra, a real life German pro-Soviet spy ring created after the rise of Hitler that turned into a resistance movement led by a leftist Nazi officer, Harro Schulze-Boysen, and Arvid Harnack.
- A realistic portrayal of the early days in the Russian occupation of Berlin.
- Although at first Ina barely takes any notice of Matti, the two teenagers gradually fall in love at their dance classes and begin their first real relationship. Their parents are upset about this development and try to prevent their children from seeing each other. But Ina and Matti continue to meet in secret and their first sexual experience together brings mixed feelings for Ina.
- Herr Steinkoehler is a passionate pedestrian, yet he suddenly finds his family coming into ownership of two Wartburgs. One of them Steinkoehler bought out of pity from a friend who needed the money to pay off his divorced wife, whereas the second one his wife Gisela secretly ordered years ago and has now just arrived. Both of them enroll in a driving school. For Steinkoehler, the lessons, or more precisely the driving instructor named Hempel, are nightmarish. Hempel exercises his powers to their fullest extent with Steinkoehler. In addition, Steinkoehler becomes jealous when his wife Gisela distinctly mixes very well with her own driving instructor. Yet fate would have it that a flighty, young, female driving student mistakes him for a driving instructor. Her devotion both lifts and confuses him with equal measure, but he is nevertheless determined to use this unexpected opportunity for adventure.
- A young boy fantasizes his way to school into a battle between cowboys and Indians, where the bad guys want to steal some gold medals. Real events and fantasy interacts in his mind.
- An East German family's life changes substantially after they acquire a used Soviet luxury car.
- Hans Röckle, a cheerful, skillful puppeteer and inventor, returns to his native village after a long wandering. One day, the Devil comes to his house to get the soul and talent of the master.
- Adam, Evchen, and Manni are looking at the moon through their home-made telescope. Evchen isn't interested, and dismisses the moon as a lump of cheese. Manni, who is a big fan of technology, sees satellites and a car driving over the moon's surface. But Adam hears the moon speak, and hears it ask for flowers to cover its surface. From then on, Adam is determined to breed a kind of flower that can grow on the moon. Although he is made fun of at school and is yelled at by his father, who develops extra-nutritious vegetables for Professor Vitamin, Adam keeps trying. Eventually things take a positive turn. Kondensmaxe, in his airplane, finds Professor Vitamin's old magic greenhouse. It turns out the Professor was herself concerned with developing such a flower, before the war, and is willing to assist Adam in his research. Manni and Evchen support him every step of the way, and so does Adam's grandfather. Eventually Adam's mother even convinces her husband to assist the children as well, although he believes that flowers are something "for poets and women." Even he is finally persuaded to abandon the purely useful for the extraordinarily beautiful. What is particularly charming about this movie is the magic found in the every-day. The clips of growing flowers seem just as magical as the idea of a flower on the moon. The university seen from the perspective of a child is just as impressive as the bewitched greenhouse in the middle of the woods. Suddenly anything is possible. The happy message of the film is to fight for what you believe in, as Adam does. That Adam convinces skeptics to help him is almost more important than the successful development of the moon flower.
- Isabel and her mother Rosita flee to East Germany from Chile after the Pinochet coup. Amidst the prejudice many of their new neighbors harbor, Isabel waits on the stairs in hopes of intercepting news of her father.
- Sabine is released from the youth reformatory. She was caught stealing cigarettes. Tricked by her boyfriend Jimmy. She still loves him, but is determined to start another life. Without Jimmy and her parents.
- In 1945, Ernst Machner returns home from the war in his mid-20s. Tuche would like him to weave for a living, but his comrades persuade him to become a young teacher instead. This decision begins to pose demands on him, however. Machner takes his leave of Hilde Tamm, who had lovingly taken him in as a homecomer. As a classroom teacher working in small villages, he starts a career that constantly puts him in new locales and new challenging situations. At the beginning of the 50s, he becomes the director of a Gymnasium steeped in tradition. There, the "average" teacher and extensively bourgeois faculty have already rejected the "Reds" and headed to the West. Machner is no professional match for the departed teachers, but he learns the more he teaches. Soon, the outright rejection of the conservative students collapses under his attention and concentration. New assignments await him, but he is skeptical as whether or not he has grown enough to handle them. Nevertheless, Machner chooses to tackle the challenges.
- Karl Erp is a fairly well-off librarian in his mid-forties with two children and a boring marriage. His love for his intern, Miss Broder, brings him out of his lethargy. He tells his wife, Elisabeth, that love never existed between them and that he only married her as a favor to her. He then moves in with Miss Broder. Harassed by her mother, he promises a divorce from his wife and later, a marriage to with her daughter. However, the spark that helped Karl in starting a new relationship doesn't show up in his day-to-day life. He can't find the willpower to start a new life, and he misses his old comforts. Thus, he returns to Elisabeth and their broken marriage.
- This story of the miller Florian, who gave all his money to the war against Napoleon, is loosely based on a true story. After the war, Florian's reimbursement is challenged, and he must also pay taxes on his destroyed mill. He resists the tax collectors and takes off to Vienna, where he intends to defend his rights. On the way, he rescues the Duchess of Guastalla from assault. She also wants to go to Vienna, as His Majesty Franz II is trying to contest an heir in her favor. With cunning, luck, and dagger, Florian fights his way through a slew of nobility and their secret police. In the end, he acquires multiple titles, and the Duchess acquires him.
- In ancient times, people lived in peace and harmony with nature, which was personified by the forest spirit, Iron Hans. However, human greed and cruelty grew stronger, and one king ordered to catch Iron Hans and imprison him in a cage.