SUN. SEPT. 27, 2015 – 5.00 PM  – Digitally restored4K DCP version!

Directed by Jürgen Böttcher – 94 minutes / German Democratic Republic 1966/1990

CAST: Monika Hildebrand, Rolf Römer, Paul Eichbaum, Holger Mahlich, Gesine Rosenberg

Set in East Berlin in the summer of 1965, where Alfred and Lisa have recently divorced. “Al” is

a mechanic; “Li” is a pediatric nurse. Al roams the city on vacation, meeting with former motorcycle

buddies and flirting with a blonde named Rita. After moving out of the marital apartment in Prenzlauer

Berg, he moves in with his mother. But via his neighbor “Mogul”, Al still has contact with Li. In the end,

there may be some hope for a new beginning … In images that are as poetic as they are documentary,

Jürgen Böttcher, who was heavily influenced by 1950s Italian neo-realists, wove a tale of the yearning

for a different life. In 1990, the director noted “I wanted to make narrative films. But authentic ones,

developed from immediate reality, which didn’t shirk from everyday hardships”. East Germany’s

cultural apparatchiks felt the film “glorified the marginalized” and halted Böttcher’s work on it in 1966;

the film was not shown publicly until 1990. The DEFA Foundation commissioned the film’s restoration,

undertaken in 2014/15 in 4K from start to finish. – The World premiere of the digitally restored

4K DCP version was at this year’s Berlinale Classics.