This East German movie was co-produced with studios in Hungary and Yugoslavia, with many interesting location shots (border checkpoint to West Berlin, the Gellert bath in Budapest, and more). The plot is about French drug dealers, who obtain heroin somewhere in the Middle East, and smuggle it in several steps to East Berlin, and from there to France (or so it appears), killing when necessary. The hero is an officer of East German customs, who with detective work, some masquerade, and occasional violent action ultimately unravels the whole network, of course with the support of the local customs departments.
Practical Effects
Real Gellert bath and Berlin border locations, not sets.
Production
Rare East German-Yugoslav-Hungarian co-production tension.
Director
Heinz Thiel
Günther Simon
Zollkommissar Peter Zinn
Günter Wolf
Hauptmann Kremm
Werner Dissel
Zollrat Donkenberg
Walter Lendrich
Milan Nemanja
Aleksandar Gavrić
Florian Garaschin
Eva-Maria Hagen
Danuta Tisza
Walter Jupé
Chevonne
Wolfgang Greese
Armiac
Predrag 'Preža' Milinković
Ferri Nemanja
Gerhard Rachold
Derec
Peter Sturm
Doboka
Willi Schrade
Runge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
DEFA studios rarely tackled crime this explicitly; this was their attempt to compete with Western thrillers while keeping socialist values intact.
Eva-Maria Hagen, who plays Danuta, was later banned from East German film after protesting the expulsion of Wolf Biermann in 1976.
DE
