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- A young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.
- The WWII pivotal battle of Stalingrad is shown through the eyes of the soldiers and officers on both sides of the war.
- The "Fiery Arc" tells of a grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943. Here was the largest tank battle in the history of World War II. Along with the personal fate of the heroes, the film shows battle scenes, the activities of headquarters and intelligence, those who worked at the front and in the rear.
- The title refers to the emblem of the Soviet NKVD. The story involves a spy who infiltrates the German SS during World War II.
- A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory. With this film, director Slatan Dudow (1903-1963) continued the traditions of proletarian German film from the Weimar Republic. As with his first feature film Kuhle Wampe, from a screenplay by Bertolt Brecht, Dudow wanted an art that "cultivates the viewer's psyche." His postwar films were intended to make the viewers realize the importance of supporting the "new order" in East Germany. Our Daily Bread became known as a premiere film of its day under the rubric of "socialist realism." Slatan Dudow's work was convincing mainly through his detailed descriptions of socialist everyday life. Music by Hanns Eisler was the centerpiece of contemporary review. After coming back from his exile in America, the composer created a score that challenged, thrilled, and focused. Berlin's world of ruins is captured in almost documentary fashion.
- This five part WW2 epic drama gives a dramatized detailed account of the five major eastern front Soviet campaigns against Nazi Germany.
- Stannebein is "an inventor of air ships for the benefit of mankind," or so he sees himself and his place in world history. In order to secure financing for his fancy, he adopts to the rhetoric of the time and, unwittingly, ends up building an air base for the Nazi German Condor Legion in Spain. His protest to the German authorities is, of course, in vain. In 1945, his family starts to inquire about him, surmising that his past and his patents might be valuable. However, Stannebein's last residence, the insane asylum, stands empty.
- Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...
- 1951. Drama. Stars, Bonar Colleano, Barbara Kelly, Eva Bartok, and Gina Lollobrigida. When an Englishman leaves America to enlist in the RAF, his grueling combat experiences result in a loss of memory.
- The battle of Moscow was the first major defeat of German Wehrmacht in the Second World War. The film is dedicated to some fighting events that took place in the USSR after Hitler's conquest of western Europe.
- A chemist and his assistant make a groundbreaking discovery. They manage to make butter directly from pasture grass without having to deal with either the cow or the use of dairy products. An industrialist attempts to seize the invention.
- In Nazi Germany actor Hans refuses to divorce his Jewish wife Elisabeth. He is threatened to be drafted and sent to the front while she will be deported to a concentration camp. Desperate, Hans decides that suicide is their only way out.
- The film is based on the biography of the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. She became an internationally regarded ballerina after her performances in 1909 with the Dyaghilev's Ballet in Paris and in London. Anna Pavlova eventually formed her own troupe. She made a successful world tour together with Viktor d'Andre, who was her husband and manager.
- A five part WW2 epic drama that gives a dramatized detailed account of Soviet Union's war against Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945.Each of the five parts represents a separate major eastern front campaign.The first part deals with the 1943 great tank Battle of Kursk.The second part details the September 1943 Lower Dnieper Offensive.The third part depicts the various stages of Operation Bagration during the summer of 1944.The fourth installment of the epic deals with the January 1945 Vistula-Oder Offensive and the final segment climaxes in the April-May 1945 Battle of Berlin.
- The rookie agent Kramm has to face the chaos of Berlin, to hunt down a murderer. inspired by the real case of the serial killer Willi Kimmritz.
- Shortly after Chile's 1973 military coup, three men are fleeing across the Andes to Argentina. They witness the murder of a farmer by Chilean police and end up at the home of the farmer's heavily pregnant wife.
- Kai, a young boy, living in 1923 Berlin tries to convince an American businessman that he can market his chewing gum better than anyone else in town.
- Peter Munk, a poor charcoal burner, lives with his mother in The Black Forest. Poverty prevents him from marrying Lisbeth, the girl he loves. When he comes across the Little Glass Man, the good spirit of the forest, the young man asks him for assistance. His wish is granted and he becomes rich. But the fool soon loses all his money after gambling at the inn. In desperation, he asks Dutch Michael, the evil spirit of the forest, to help him to become rich again. The mean giant agrees and gives Peter all the riches in the world, but on one condition: the young man will exchange his heart for a cold stone. He can now marry Lisbeth but can a heart of ice make you and the others happy...?
- Severino returns to his tribe - the Manzeneros, who live on the edge of the Argentinian Andes - after being gone for 10 years. He has returned to take his younger brother back with him up north, but encounters a host of problems in his home village instead. His father Raymundo, who was on the trail of a gang of white bandits who were stealing cattle from both Indians and settlers, has been recently found dead. A sheep-ranching company turns out to be behind this criminal activity. The company wants to drive the Indians and settlers off the fertile land so that they can purchase it for nothing. Severino decides to remain in his home village to defend it from them, but also because he has fallen in love with Maruja, the granddaughter of the old chief Nicolas, who is filled with hatred against the white settlers. True to form, Nicolas calls for war against the settlers. Severino tries to mediate between the hostile parties. With his own savings, Severino buys back the land that once rightfully belonged to the Indians. In doing so, he not only wins over a number of supporters from his own tribe, but he is also able to unmask the bandits, who had been trying to stir up discord between Whites and Indians. The stubborn chief Nicolas, however, refuses to give up his war plans: in his eyes, Severino is a traitor deserving only death. Maruja now has to save Severino's life from his own tribe.
- Mitte dreißig etwa ist die Köchin Karoline Gluth (Renate Geißler), Mutter eines fast erwachsenen Sohnes und Mitinhaberin einer Kneipe auf Rügen, als es sie in die Welt zieht. Sie lässt sich ihre Erbschaft auszahlen und kauft ein kleines Häuschen am Rande von Berlin, das sie allerdings nur vom Foto kennt. Vor Ort erweist sich der Besitz als heruntergekommenes Wochenendhaus, was Karoline erst einmal mit Tränen quittiert. So lernt sie auch der junge Bauarbeiter Christian (Udo Schenk) kennen, der die Laube bisher als gelegentliche Bleibe benutzte. Doch er tröstet Karoline nicht nur mit Worten, sondern vermittelt ihr auch die Bekanntschaft von Herbert Kotbuß (Dieter Franke), einem einflussreichen Bauspezialisten. Nachdem sich die gegensätzlichen Standpunkte der beiden angenähert haben und Karoline auch bereit ist, Geld einschließlich "West-Mark" unter der Hand zu zahlen, geht der Umbau des Häuschens recht schnell vonstatten. Schließlich besitzt Karoline ein hübsches Haus, in Herbert einen liebgewonnenen Freund und ein geschrumpftes Bankkonto. Sorgen macht ihr allerdings ihre berufliche Entwicklung. Als Köchin in einer Betriebsküche hat sie zwar die Sympathien ihrer Kolleginnen, aber nicht die des Chefkochs. Ganz locker, mit viel hintergründigem Humor erzählt DEFA-Regisseur Ulrich Thein 1980 die Geschichte einer Frau um die dreißig, die plötzlich aufbricht, um ihr Leben selbst zu bestimmen. So ganz nebenbei, aber sehr genau, legt Thein dabei die großen und kleinen Schwächen des Alltags bloß, die sicher auch in der Rückschau den Zuschauer noch bewegen. "Dach überm Kopf" ist der erste DEFA-Spielfilm von Ulrich Thein als Regisseur, der sich zuvor als Schauspieler einen Namen gemacht hatte. Seiner Hauptdarstellerin Renate Geißler schneidert er die Rolle auf den Leib, ihr zur Seite gesellt er Dieter Franke vom Berliner Deutschen Theater, der in dieser Rolle seinem komödiantischen Affen kräftig Zucker geben kann.
- Stalin orders to hasten the Vistula-Oder offensive in order to relieve the Allies. Karl Wolff is sent to negotiate with the Americans. Zhukov rejects Stavka's order to take Berlin, the Soviets and the Poles storm the Tiergarten.