An East German machinist, disenchanted by the building of the Wall, plans to use a train to cross the border with family members and other disaffected citizens.
Direction
Wisbar wrings sweat from every bureaucratic encounter.
Acting
Schumann's crumbling resolve is pure desperation cinema.
Director
Frank Wisbar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Frank Wisbar fled Nazi Germany in 1939, making this his return-to-roots excavation of divided Berlin—he knew escape routes personally.
Released mere months after the Wall's construction, DEFA studio greenlit this rare critical depiction of GDR policy—then buried it in limited distribution.
DE
