Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein

In the mid-1970s, things weren't exactly going well for West German cinema: successful sex films (all the Report films) versus cash-strapped auteur filmmakers (FASSBINDER / SCHLÖNDORFF / WENDERS). But something happened at CONSTANTIN (Karl May Films) in the person of Bernd EICHINGER (1949-2011), who distinguished himself as a producer. Directed by Roland KLICK, an exciting spy thriller was created that takes place in divided Berlin in 1964.

A GDR agent (Heinz DOMEZ) flees to the West and gets caught up in the tussle between the secret services of East (Rudolf WESSELY) and West (Georg MARISCHKA). Things get particularly precarious when the defector also wants to bring his girlfriend (Catherine ALLEGRET, daughter of ACADEMY AWARD winner Simone SIGNORET) over...

There's a lot of music in there, it puffs and hisses! The rare example of an ambitious genre film in West German cinema that has unfortunately been all too forgotten. The original comes from the German bestselling author Johannes Mario SIMMEL, Günter PFITZMANN (DER ZINKER), Margot WERNER and Rolf ZACHER shine in other roles.

In 1976, the Dutch cameraman Jost VACANO received the GERMAN FILM AWARD.

The movie was all too freely adapted from the book with the same German title. In my opinion the adaption was not good. Normally a plot has to be shortened and simplified to fit it into some 90 minutes. Here the second half has not very much to do with the book. So better read the book. The English title is "The Berlin Connection".