THE ARCHITECTS   1990 (Die Architekten) Directed by Peter Kahane 95 minutes In German with English subtitles

This 1990 DEFA flick explores the suffocating last moments of the GDR, just as it was all about to totally collapse. This was an early 'Wende' film, which means a 'film of change' and was one of the last movies to be shot in East Germany. While it was being filmed, the country was changing so quickly that the director felt the movie might never even be finished... he was afraid that his entire crew might flee and disappear to the west and abandon the film altogether. This unusual situation gives this wende-flick a special edge and an overcast mood.

The story centers on an idealistic young architect named Daniel, whose plans for a new development have been rejected for not complying with standardized designs. He wants to bring something new to the table, but he is faced with endless Communist bureaucracy, dogmas and dead ends. He struggles with the situation, hoping for the best, while his wife decides to leave for West Germany along with their daughter. This makes it perhaps the most gloomy of all the DEFA films we have been seeing, because there is no more hope: set in a suffocating landscape during the last breaths of an entire culture. This is a movie about people having their hopes shot down, but it is also a finely drawn portrait of life in East Berlin and one of the first fiction films to deal with the unification period.

One of the questions this film raises is: how much can someone compromise on their vision and still be called an artist? And let's be clear, the same question applies to us today: how much can some be commercialized and forced to follow a formula, and still be called an artist. In other words, this movie looks back at a time when people still had integrity and desperately cared about what they did, whereas today the ethical side has largely vanished.

A rare screening of one of the last DEFA productions. We will have only two more of these special events at the Goethe, and then it will be finished!