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Directed by Herrmann Zschoche 
76 minutes
In German with English subtitles

This flick from East Germany is set in a camp for young students in 1978, and focuses on two teenagers—Karoline and Robert—who meet again after being separated for many years. What this film has to offer us, in a minor way, is a surprising masterpiece reflecting what life was like in the now deleted past of the GDR, a world so much more relaxed than the one we face today.

What unfolds is a snapshot of a unique time and place that blasts away all the stereotypes and tropes we have been told about the former East bloc. For example, what were kids busy with in the GDR? As we can see in this film: they were falling in love, diving into culture—and even embracing nudity in a way that would have been immediately condemned (and censored) throughout the Western Bloc... and  I suspect it would be even more heavily censored today. In fact, East Germany gave a lot of leisure time for young people, whereas in the Americanized Western world much of children's spare time revolved around consumerism and buying junk. Kids in the West were being taught very young how to be hyperactive shoppers, that's for sure.

Let's remember in the United States during the same period—the late 70s—'teen camping' films were grisly affairs, with kids being hunted down and killed by some unknown dark force, often just after having sex. In America the whole notion of nature was depicted as dangerous and even kind of evil. Instead here we have this flick about fourteen-year-olds and love affairs. Cinematically speaking, it's pretty clear which side of the iron-curtain the monsters were on. 

Here in the West, East Germany was demonized as a dark dictatorship: closed, grey, gloomy and repressive. This hugely popular film reveals a different side of the story—a largely undisturbed youth, a society where women were more equal to men, and things like nudity (Freikörperkultur) were embraced. The GDR was a world where money was less important, and teenagers weren't being shoved into the job market to be exploited. So let's relax and breathe again, open a door and step into another world.