Spur der Steine
THE TRACE OF STONES masterfully plays with an array of different techniques borrowed from genre film. Beyer thereby succeeds in producing an impressive synthesis of stylistic devices, previously classed as inappropriate at DEFA. The subplot consists of a party meeting which acts as an impromptu court hearing, allowing the film to delve into the past of those present. Balla and Horrath are depicted as good-natured contemporaries, who never shy away from debate. Like a classic western, Horrath arrives as an outsider in a self-contained microcosm where he must pass a series of trials. At first his adversary is Balla. Their rivalry is personified in Kati who is caught between them.
When the frontlines shift later on, interpersonal conflict takes a backseat to a social battle. In the end Balla and Horrath join forces against the site management, which rigidly sticks by its outdated viewpoints and employs dirty tricks in the process. Thanks to the intervention of a comrade from the district administration, the party meeting convened to sentence Horrath becomes the final watershed in the tale. Only Kati, disillusioned by the men’s power games, has no desire to remain at Schkona and start over again.
Director: Frank Beyer, b/w, 129 min., 1966
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