Author
For the first time, a member of the secret BND partisan force "Stay behind" reports on his mission during the Cold War. "Dieter Gerlach," as he was code-named, was supposed to set up resistance groups in the enemy's rear in the event of a Soviet occupation of the Federal Republic. The BND partisans practiced explosive attacks until the 1970s, and later radio and smuggling operations in occupied territory. When it became known in 1990 that the Italian partner organization of "Stay behind" was involved in terrorist attacks, the German government initially denied the existence of the partisan network.
Director
The order comes in the summer of 1941 from propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels himself: The best animators are summoned to Berlin. Their task: Producing feature-length cartoons in ‘Disney-Quality’ with the newly founded ‘Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH’. To get trained, the Disney movie “Snow White” is re-traced frame by frame. After the final victory, one new feature-length production of quality shall be released every year from 1947 onwards. – that is the plan. Only in 1943, the first production is completed: “Armer Hansi” a 17-minute-long colour movie, realized with the effortful Multiplane-technology. The second film by the ‘Deutsche Zeichenfilm’ is only completed in 1946 – by DEFA. In the territories occupied by Germany, cartoons are produced as well, sometimes harmless ones, sometimes propagandistic ones. With excerpts from animated movies, life-action film documents, and witness reports by contemporaries, this documentary draws a picture of the cartoon production in the third Reich.
