Fritz Lang

German director Gordian Maugg creates this curious documentary/reenactment of the life of Hans Warn, adventuring sailor-turned-photographer. Born in Bremen in 1899, the young Hans signs on to the good ship Herbert in 1914, but not before he persuades his mother to buy him a camera. What starts as a hobby soon develops into a passion. Soon Hans is documenting his life on the high seas and his ship's six-month capture during World War I. Later, Hans marries the girl next door, Wilma, but their family life is sporadic because of his seafaring career. Maugg uses a wide palette of cinematic tricks and devices to recall the early years of the century, including sepia tinting, decorative intertitles, distressed footage, and other idioms of early silent documentaries.

Jutta and Eric were once lovers and aspiring chefs in the Spree Forest region of East Germany. Too prone too brilliant but risky improvisation, Jutta fell into obscurity; Eric defected to the West and became famous. Now he has returned to enlist her aid of crucial cooking contest - does this portend rekindled romance or cynical exploitation?

In 1936 Nazi Germany, a young,innocent apprentice, full of Olympic fever, leaves his rural village to see the ceremonies in Berlin. Upon arriving in the capitol, he meets a widow and a relationship blossoms. They spend an idyllic summer at her lakeside home, but the forces of totalitarianism cannot be held at bay and soon invade their lives.