Michael Englberger

Horst, a young boy from Berlin, spends his holidays with the "Pirates" at Horse Island. The teen gang is led by Horst′s friend Benno. Soon, Horst realizes that the pirates create a lot of nuisance. Gudrun, whom Horst meets on his way to the village, tells him that she has been attacked and injured by the pirates when she tried to observe a rare cormorant. Gudrun and Horst become friends. Since Benno is less than thrilled about this friendship, he plots a second attack on the girl.

This film musical is a romantic comedy of mistaken identities set at the 10th World Festival in Berlin. Alexej from Moscow meets and is attracted to Mascha, right before he leaves for Berlin. Mascha also travels to Berlin to perform with her cultural ensemble. While there, she boards with the Krüger family, whose son Hans is attracted to her.

The late summer of 1918. Paul, Willi and Heinrich from an age-old German town are good friends, although there is a great deal that divides them. Heinrich comes from an officer's family with an army tradition and is preparing to enter cadet college. Paul's father and grandfather are workers, and Willi, left to depend on himself, works as a hotel messenger. The last year of the war is hard for everyone, but while Paul and Willi know their own minds and do not hesitate to help the war fugitives Tony and Sepp, for Heinrich everything is more complicated.

Diary of a German Woman (also known as You are Mine - A German Diary) is the most personal of the Thorndikes’ projects. Based on Annelie’s diary entries, her story was to be the starting point for a kind of all-German ‘Heimatfilm’ that praises the utopian power of the GDR and sharply condemns Federal German wrongs, but finds transcendent beauty on both sides of the wall. Over the course of production, however, the visionary dimension of the project was progressively trimmed down, though it’s still tangible everywhere in the compromised final version. The intensity of its pathos is both oppressive and enchanting; some historical simplifications and ideological twists and bends may be hair-raising, but they still achieve the desired effect.

Horst, a young boy from Berlin, spends his holidays with the "Pirates" at Horse Island. The teen gang is led by Horst′s friend Benno. Soon, Horst realizes that the pirates create a lot of nuisance. Gudrun, whom Horst meets on his way to the village, tells him that she has been attacked and injured by the pirates when she tried to observe a rare cormorant. Gudrun and Horst become friends. Since Benno is less than thrilled about this friendship, he plots a second attack on the girl.

Horst, a young boy from Berlin, spends his holidays with the "Pirates" at Horse Island. The teen gang is led by Horst′s friend Benno. Soon, Horst realizes that the pirates create a lot of nuisance. Gudrun, whom Horst meets on his way to the village, tells him that she has been attacked and injured by the pirates when she tried to observe a rare cormorant. Gudrun and Horst become friends. Since Benno is less than thrilled about this friendship, he plots a second attack on the girl.

This film musical is a romantic comedy of mistaken identities set at the 10th World Festival in Berlin. Alexej from Moscow meets and is attracted to Mascha, right before he leaves for Berlin. Mascha also travels to Berlin to perform with her cultural ensemble. While there, she boards with the Krüger family, whose son Hans is attracted to her.

Diary of a German Woman (also known as You are Mine - A German Diary) is the most personal of the Thorndikes’ projects. Based on Annelie’s diary entries, her story was to be the starting point for a kind of all-German ‘Heimatfilm’ that praises the utopian power of the GDR and sharply condemns Federal German wrongs, but finds transcendent beauty on both sides of the wall. Over the course of production, however, the visionary dimension of the project was progressively trimmed down, though it’s still tangible everywhere in the compromised final version. The intensity of its pathos is both oppressive and enchanting; some historical simplifications and ideological twists and bends may be hair-raising, but they still achieve the desired effect.