A puppeteer haunted by his own strings — East German cinema at its most quietly devastating.
The puppet player Sebastian Fußberg moves through the country at the end of the fifties. Despite his age, an unwavering dreamer and idealist. But also a torn person who cannot detach himself from the shadows of his past.
Acting
Pieczka's face does what dialogue cannot — decades of weight.
Cinematography
Bleached landscapes that swallow hope whole.
Direction
Gräf lets silence scream louder than any monologue.
Director
Roland Gräf
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in the dying days of DEFA, this was Gräf's whispered farewell to East German state cinema before its 1990 collapse.
The puppet theatre sequences were performed by Pieczka himself after months of training — no hand doubles, no mercy.
DE
