A scene from German film The Divided Heaven, a public screening at the Whanganui Film Society on October 31.
Members of the public are invited to attend Whanganui Film Society's next film, The Divided Heaven.
This is a 1964 film by the Russian-trained, East German director Konrad Wolf, and adapted from a novel by Christa Wolf (no relation to the director).
The story takes place in East Germany in
1961, just before the construction of the Berlin Wall.
After suffering a nervous breakdown, Rita Seidel returns to her village from the city of Halle to find peace and quiet. She recalls the past years, her love for chemist Manfred Herrfurth, her work in a railway car factory and her studies to become a teacher. There were problems with political opportunists and ideological hardliners in the factory and at university.
The Divided Heaven is one of the bravest movies ever to be made in East Germany - not only because of its unusual dramaturgy, but also because it seeks responsibility for conflicts in one's own country and not with the 'class enemy'.
