Lilian Seng

A commissioned work for a television series on WDR, A House for Us. FROM THE FAMILY OF REPTILES and THE ISLAND are a complete program in two episodes. Monika manages to convince Mr. and Mrs. Hagedorn that their daughter is not mischievous or insidious but that her parents should consult a Psychotherapist with her. But as usual all the therapists are booked out and have a long waiting list for patients. So Ute is left alone once more with her helpless parents and she is more and more drawn to the zoo and her beloved crocodiles. Thanks to Monika’s sense of responsibility and her commitment, Ute manages to break free from her isolation.

A commissioned work for a television series on WDR, A House for Us. FROM THE FAMILY OF REPTILES and THE ISLAND are a complete program in two episodes. After all with Michael Ballhaus as the cinematographer. Ute (Katja Wulff), an 8 year old girl, constantly runs away from home and the youth center to escape into her own world. She spends many hours at the zoo and especially in front of the crocodil compound. Monika Brehm (Lisa Kreuzer), the kindergarten teacher, tries to find an entrance into Ute’s world. She realizes that her escapes are a form of withdrawal from her parents and the grown up world.

Unusual race relations melodrama from West Germany follows a German sailor who meets and weds a Chinese woman while on leave in Hong Kong, only to meet with disapproval from his family and friends when the couple returns to Europe.

Water is a scarce and sometimes dangerous resource in the Swiss Mountain Village. Anytime the wooden pipe is damaged and the supply breaks, one man from the village is determined by "unlucky" draw to take on the life-threatening repairs.

In 1959, in a small German village, the annual fair is set up. When a carousel is fixed firmly in the ground, a fair worker discovers a skeleton, a steel helmet, and a machine gun. The skeleton belongs to Robert Mertens, a plain soldier, who deserted in 1944 und flew to his home village. But when he arrived, no one wanted to help him, neither his former friends nor the minister, or even his own parents.

West Germany's entry in the 1957 Cannes Film Festival was this cinemadaptation of the Gerhardt Hauptman play Rose Bernd. The title character, played by Maria Schell, is a servant girl on a remote farm. Sexually assaulted by both her employer and a coworker, Rose later bears a child, who die soon afterward. After nearly two hours of unrelieved misery, Rose finally finds happiness in the arms of a longtime admirer (where has he been for the past 12 reels?) Rose Bernd (aka The Sins of Rose Bernd) received a smattering of American showings thanks to the drawing power of star Maria Schell.

Mother Wolffen, a washerwoman, is a woman of principle: A poor man must do what he must to get through life, only he mustn't get caught doing it. All sorts of crooked deals contribute to the improvement of the daily menu and the increase of household funds. When everyone is searching for pensioner Krueger's missing beaverskin coat, Mother Wolffen and her family are calmly enjoying fresh roast venison.

The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views. Trying to remain "a non-political man," he withdraws from reality and becomes a Nazis laborer.

Dr. Blum, a Jewish manufacturer, is falsely accused of a murder. Even when the real killer’s identity becomes evident, the state prosecutor refuses to accept Blum’s innocence.