A Cold War double agent so stressed he forgets which lie he's living.
Wolf Brandin is in his mid-twenties and lives with his wife and child in East Berlin at the end of the 1950s. In West Berlin, the student of electrical engineering is recruited by the American secret service CIA. But Brandin immediately notifies the State Security of the German Democratic Republic and from then on lives a dangerous life as a double agent. When Brandin reaches the breaking point, his marriage starts to unravel because Brandin is not allowed to tell his family about his double life.
Acting
Zimmermann's sweating, trembling breakdown scenes.
Direction
Dziuba's cramped frame traps you in Wolf's lies.
Production
Authentic East Berlin locations, no Western gloss.
Director
Helmut Dziuba
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of the rare DEFA thrillers that escaped heavy Stasi censorship by framing the protagonist as morally compromised rather than heroic.
Director Dziuba was denied travel permits for years after this film; the GDR read Wolf's collapse as subversive individualism.
XG
