Frank Beyer's Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones) is one of the most important, but also one of the most controversial films produced by DEFA. It tells the story of the headstrong foreman Hannes Balla (Manfred Krug), who uses unconventional methods to manage a large construction site and is at loggerheads with the authorities. The arrival of the young party secretary Kati Klee and the engineer Werner Horrath causes unrest in the well-established structure, not only professionally but also privately. A field of tension arises between the three characters, involving power, morality, and personal responsibility. Based on the novel of the same name by Erik Neutsch, the film tells not only of the construction of a socialist building project, but above all of the clash of different lifestyles, beliefs, and power structures in the GDR of the 1960s. The film criticizes abuses in everyday life in the GDR and presents a complex, realistic view of life that was too realistic for the party leadership. After only a few screenings, Spur der Steine was banned and disappeared into the archives until 1990. Today, it is considered a milestone of GDR cinema: courageous, multi-layered, and timelessly relevant.

Loan of the film print with kind support of HfG Karlsruhe.

Christian Haardt weaves a new story from ancient HfG archive material that flickers by like a dream - pure imagination! Did you know: Christian Haardt's Vordiplom was not actually intended as a film - but as an installation! The film material was running on the editing table: an experimental film edited together from copies of students' works found in the film archive, which weaves together a wide variety of stories to create a universal story. This is the first time we have been able to show the film. Thank you for that!

Loan of the film print with kind support of HfG Karlsruhe.