East Germany in 1961, just before the construction of the Berlin Wall. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Rita Seidel returns to her village from the city of Halle to find peace and quiet. She recalls the past years, her love for chemist Manfred Herrfurth, her work in a railway car factory and her studies to become a teacher. There were problems with political opportunists and ideological hardliners in the factory and at university. Rita’s love affair came to an end after Manfred, bitter that uncompromising supervisors had rejected his new chemical process, fled the city for West Berlin without Rita, who chose not to join him. THE DIVIDED HEAVEN, created just a few years after the Wall was constructed, is one of the bravest movies ever to be made in the GDR – not only because of its unusual dramaturgy, but also because it seeks responsibility for conflicts in one’s own country and not with the “class enemy”.

Halle an der Saale, in Saxony-Anhalt, just before the construction of the Berlin Wall. A young woman collapses in a railway car factory. We meet her again at her parents’ home on the outskirts of a village (the large bridge in the background is reminiscent of Käutner’s East-West love story SKY WITHOUT STARS). A doctor visits her and tells her: “You are healthy!” Rita has merely had a “nervous shock”. In a flashback that weaves together various temporal levels as memories into a pervasive stream of feelings and associations, Konrad Wolf tells how Rita Seidel’s breakdown occurred – based on the novel of the same name by Christa Wolf.

Rita recalls how she met the chemist Manfred Herrfurth while dancing. At the time, she seemed a bit naive; he had a worldly-wise and confident manner. Together, they visit Manfred’s parents. Manfred has problems with his father, often leading to political bickering. Rita is allowed to study at the Institute for Teacher Training and lives with Manfred. At the same time, she works in a railway car factory and becomes friends with the old, disgraced foreman Meternagel. A new plant manager starts working in Manfred’s chemical plant; his predecessor had never returned from a business trip to West Berlin. In the railway car factory, there is a lack of metal supplies. Production is halted, and there’s a feeling of irritation among the workers. They also argue about a possible increase in the production standard.

At university, Rita mainly experiences fierce ideological debates, mostly carried out by hardliners and political opportunists. She does not quite know how to deal with them. Manfred seems to be building a career. He holds a PhD and has developed a new chemical process, which is rejected. Manfred is initially disappointed, then embittered, and decides to go to West Berlin, where the working conditions are far better for him. Rita visits him, but decides not to stay. She returns to Halle and suffers a nervous breakdown.

In April 1961, news of the first space flight by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin comes to light – thus making it possible to pinpoint the time in which the film’s story takes place. Construction of the Wall, which practically sealed off Berlin’s western sectors, began on 13 August. From then on, Rita had virtually no chance of ever seeing Manfred again.

At first glance, the ultra-modern dramaturgy would have been quite challenging to viewers of the time, accustomed as they were to linear narratives. Though any confusion caused by this non-linear structure is difficult to comprehend from today’s perspective, as stream of consciousness and the techniques of the psychological novel have long been familiar to movie fans. Konrad Wolf: “With these associative images, I would like to feed the subconsciousness of the audience, rather than challenge them to concrete interpretations.” Reactions ran the gamut up to open hostility for the film. “The director and his cameraman were accused of surrealism, incomprehensibility and bourgeois decadence. Hidden behind objections to the film were negative views of the story itself, which chose not to denounce someone fleeing the GDR, but recognised the cause of his flight in the living conditions of the country he left behind.” (Regine Sylvester).

THE DIVIDED HEAVEN remained one of the few DEFA films that not only examined the taboo issue of defection from East Germany (a criminal offense in the GDR), but declared it understandable, and, above all, did not place the blame on the “class enemy” in the West. The director’s courage can also be seen in the characterisation of Manfred’s father. According to the official party line of the GDR, all former Nazis lived in the West. But here we learn that Manfred’s father had swapped party emblems – deftly changing his loyalty from the Nazi party to the Socialist Unity Party. A counterexample can be seen in the neutralised foreman Meternagel, an upright and honest worker who is corrupted by the system. He cannot fight against it and resigns. Wolf subtly examines the issue with anger and sadness.

Production Period

1963/1964

Production Year

1964

color

b/w

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Love Film, Drama

Topic

Love, Relationship / Family, GDR, Film History, Socialism / Communism

Available Media

Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Film

Original Version

German (de)

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Indonesisch (id), Korean (ko)

DVD

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), German (full), Indonesisch (id), Korean (ko)

Digital Film

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Indonesisch (id), Korean (ko)