Berlin um die Ecke

It’s the mid 1960s in East Berlin. Horst and Olaf are friends who are part of a youth crew at a metalworking factory. They’re unhappy at the discrimination against young skilled workers, as well as a few other things, and often clash with the older workers. And when they’re not at work, their passion for motorcycles doesn’t exactly endear them to everyone either. For a long time, Olaf’s persistent wooing of Karin seems in vain … Scenes and storylines are only loosely connected in this film essay of unconventional beauty. Shooting on Berlin um die Ecke was just wrapping up in December 1965, when the Central Committee plenum led to first film bans. And when the rough cut was ready in the spring of 1966, it also came under fire. Among other things, the writers were accused of portraying generational conflict as a pattern and insurmountable, distorting and exaggerating problems in manufacturing operations, and showing socialist reality as unfriendly and dreary. The film was banned and editing ceased. A rough cut was screened in 1987, in East Germany while it was still in existence, and the film was finished in 1990.