Tonight at the Goethe Institute we saw “Spur der Steine”, a 1966 DEFA film. It was censored immediately after its first screening and it became available in theaters in the DDR only from november 1989…not surprisingly!
As per IMDB: “Hannes Balla is the foreman of a group of building construction workers at the large construction site “Schkona” in the GDR. They spend most of their time working hard and drinking harder – to some they are fun, to some they are a public nuisance. Things get more complicated when the good-looking Kati Klee is employed as a young technician, and the ambitious new Party Secretary, Werner Horrath, aims to boost work efficiency and downsize Balla’s ego. A contemporary movie about work, love, and everything in between”.
Interesting film about “carreerism”, with an almost critical view on the SED party, with Walter Ulbricht portraits and the like. A bit of a Peyton Place film too. And the foreman…he’s got a great presence. In between 1960’s Alberto Sordi’s “spaccone” characters and today’s Ben Affleck equally “spaccone” characters. Manfred Krug is groβartig in this role. The film is weird too…where women engineers remove their tights in the middle of a building site in order to avoid the dust, widows are mad for Eilikör, carpenters wear an earring with a pearl and swim naked in the middle of ducks.
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