Helga Schütz

Actor Ernst Stein, having abdicated from the stage in 1968 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, has long since retreated from the world around him. In a remote house encircled by an overgrown garden, he lives in a world of dreams and memories. Suddenly, in 1989, an out-of-kilter society sends forth its progeny. Young people, tramps and characters of all sorts take refuge with Stein for a short span, carrying the turmoil of the times into his house.

Фильм о прославленном немецком писателе Хансе Фаллада, авторе многих-романов, воссоздающих атмосферу жизни предфашистской Германии. Фаллада, в отличие от многих других литераторов, остался в гитлеровской Германии не эмигрировал, но и не пошел в услужение к нацистам. После победы над фашизмом Рудольф Дитцен (настоящее имя писателя) сотрудничал с советской военной администрацией, был бургомистром одного небольшого городка. В картине воспроизведены последние десять лет жизни писателя, когда он находился в безвестности и нужде, когда его запугивали, арестовывали фашистские власти.

Last years in the Life of german Dramatican Georg Büchner. Around the year 1830 he and his fellow students try to initiate a revolution in Germany, but they are not successful. Büchner has to leave the country and seeks exile in France and Switzerland, where he falls ill with typhus.

Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.

The young and rebellious Werther is passionately, but hopelessly, in love with Lotte. Although he knows that she is married to somebody who can offer her a secure future, Werther tries to be near her. Lotte cannot decide between these two men. She eventually rejects Werther, who does not survive her decision.

During their holiday in Kraków, a young worker and a student are asked if their love, despite different views on life, will endure.

Adam receives a flashlight with special powers: every liar it shines on flies into the air. Production was cancelled in 1965/66 due to the film's political content. Only in 1989/90 could the director reconstruct the film, where missing sounds and images are replaced with script inserts.

The marriage of Katrin and Richard Lot has become a routine. She has a career and he, as a Marine officer, comes home only once every fourteen days. The children greet him with joy, but she greets him only with anxiety because their marriage is missing its key ingredient: love. She wants a divorce, but he refuses mainly out of comfort as well as due to pressure from the party. Katrin finds a strange solution: she shoplifts and is put on probation for three months. This is enough to force Richard into a divorce because he is concerned about the "moral liability" of his wife.