Goethe-Cinema
In accordance to COVID-19 protocols, all students must wear masks and show proof of full vaccination (two doses) to enter Saint Paul University, where the Goethe-Institut Ottawa is located.
The Goethe-Institut Ottawa's monthly thematic film series on German cinema at Saint Paul University.
The Legend of Paul and Paula (Die Legende von Paul und Paula)
German Democratic Republic 1972, 105 min.
DEFA
Director: Heiner Carow
With: Angelica Domröse, Winfried Glatzeder, Heidemarie Wenzel, Fred Delmare, Rolf Ludwig
Paula, a single mother of two children, meets Paul, a civil servant, in an East Berlin music club. Paul has made a career for himself, but leads an unhappy marriage. The two fall in love with each other. While Paula is ready to give herself uncompromisingly into their common happiness and to break with all conventions, Paul hesitates. He is not willing to jeopardize his social position as an employee in the Ministry of Foreign Trade...
The Legend of Paul and Paula is not only a tragic love story, but also the story of a renewal, about the new living in the GDR: Right at the beginning of the film we see collapsing old buildings, accompanied by a musical background by the Puhdys, one of the most famous GDR rock bands. The old, gray Berlin apartment buildings have to make way for the prefabricated slab buildings that are so typical of Berlin Friedrichshain today. The film takes us through the east of Berlin, from Volkspark Friedrichshain over Warschauer Brücke, to the Rummelsburger Bucht, where there is still a Paul- und Paula-Ufer today.
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