Actor Ernst Stein, having abdicated from the stage in 1968 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, has long since retreated from the world around him. In a remote house encircled by an overgrown garden, he lives in a world of dreams and memories. Suddenly, in 1989, an out-of-kilter society sends forth its progeny. Young people, tramps and characters of all sorts take refuge with Stein for a short span, carrying the turmoil of the times into his house.
Acting
Rolf Ludwig's face contains multitudes of unspoken guilt.
Production
That overgrown garden is practically its own character.
Writing
Dialogue that sounds improvised but cuts like a blade.
Director
Egon Günther
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released mere months after German reunification, it captures the psychic whiplash of a country processing four decades of complicity and resistance.
Director Egon Günther was himself blacklisted by East German authorities in the 1960s; this is essentially autobiographical cosplay.
DE
