Goethe-Institut Chicago

REGISTER HERE

This gripping drama, based on personal experiences of screenwriter Angel Wagenstein, is set during a chapter of the Holocaust in the Balkans that sheds light on the experience of Sephardic Jews. It was awarded the Special Grand Jury Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.

Stationed in a secluded Bulgarian village in 1943, Walter—a German Wehrmacht sergeant and artist—lives in almost idyllic distance from the war. Then a transit camp is set up for Jews arriving from Greece. When Ruth, one of internees, asks Walter to help a pregnant woman, the two form an unlikely bond.

This film is presented in collaboration with Doc Films and the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.

REGISTER HERE

After a breakdown, Rita returns to her childhood village in 1961. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for the chemist Manfred, ten years her senior; how his enthusiasm about his new chemical process turned to bitter disappointment in the face of official rejection; how he escaped to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built and hoped that she would follow him.

Divided Heaven is based on Christa Wolf's internationally renowned novel, which was criticized in the GDR for questioning the construction of the Wall. Produced during a brief cultural thaw in the early 1960s, this film was strongly influenced by the French Nouvelle Vague.

Free and open to the public, please register in advance via Eventbrite and bring a state-issued photo ID for check-in.

REGISTER HERE

Gregor is a young soldier entering Germany with the victorious Soviet troops at the end of WWII. But he is also the child of left-wing Germans who fled from Hitler and spent the war in the Soviet Union. As a result, his return to Germany is ambivalent; he finds he is a stranger in his own land.

As they enter Germany, Gregor begins to realize that he is different from all his comrades in arms, for this defeated land is his home country, and the Germans he meets are his compatriots. He is a victor, but also one of the vanquished. He attempts to understand the Germans he meets along his way, but he is a 19-year-old: inquisitive, occasionally uncomprehending and repeatedly dismayed by the atrocities and lies he encounters.

This film will be introduced by Danny Pinto, joint PhD candidate in the Departments of Germanic Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, and accompanied by a post-screening lecture. It is presented in collaboration with Doc Films and the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.