Hans Fallada

1940年6月、フランスが降伏し、ドイツ国中が戦勝ムードに沸く中、首都ベルリンに暮らす労働者階級の夫婦、オットーとアンナのもとに1通の手紙が届く。それは、彼らのひとり息子ハンスの戦死を知らせるものだった。それ以来、2人は、悲しみと失意を怒りに転化させ、ヒトラー政権を批判するメッセージを匿名の葉書にせっせと書き綴っては、街のあちこちに人知れずばらまくという、ささやかな抵抗運動に身を投じるようになる。

Hans Fallada tells in his published after the war novel "The drinker" the story of the agricultural wholesaler Erwin Sommer, who flees from his narrow bourgeois relations under the burdens of the new times in the kingdom of the king alcohol, whose liberty and independence promises prove a lie - the only truth of the alcohol. On behalf of the WDR television play Ulrich Plenzdorf has adapted Fallada's 1944/45 novel for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle with Harald Juhnke in the main role of Erwin Sommer.

When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.

The tax officials Thiel and Kalübbe try to confiscate two oxen, but are prevented from doing so by protesting farmers led by the community leader Reimers. The assistant editor Tredup, who takes photos of the incident, is also in the thick of things.

The underage Rosemarie is still too young to run her inherited farm by herself; but she's more than aware that her foster father and the farm's administrator, the farmer Schlieker, is constantly skimming from the farm's finances to line his own pocket. To put an end to Schlieker's scheme, Rosemarie asks her godfather, Professor Kittgus, for help. But when Kittgus confronts Schlieker, the farmer not only proves to be unreasonable but also violent...

A young couple struggling against poverty must keep their marriage a secret in order for the husband to keep his job, as his boss doesn't like to hire married men.

First adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel of the same name.