Der geteilte Himmel
Liebesfilm, DDR 1964

Halle, 1961: Studentin Rita (Renate Blume) liebt den Chemiker Manfred (Eberhard Esche). Der geht wenig später nach Westberlin. Als Rita ihn dort besucht, gelangt sie zu ei-ner bitteren Erkenntnis: In den verfeindeten Staatssystemen haben sich auch die Liebenden einander entfremdet… Das zeitweilig verbotene Drama von Konrad Wolf zählt zu den besten Werken des DDR-Kinos.

After a breakdown, Rita returns to her childhood village. It is 1961. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for the chemist Manfred, ten years her senior; his enthusiasm about his new chemical process, which turned to bitter disappointment in the face of rejection; his escape to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built; and his hope that she would follow him. This East German classic, praised by critics as one of Germany's 100 Most Important Films, is based on Christa Wolf's internationally-known novel, criticized in the GDR for questioning the construction of the Wall. Produced during a brief cultural thaw in the early 1960s, this film was strongly influenced by French Nouvelle Vague cinema.