Once on Ku'damm and back

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Movie
Original title Once on Ku'damm and back
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1985
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK from 12
Rod
Director Herbert Ballmann
script Jürgen Engert
production Herbert Ballmann
music Jürgen Knieper
camera Ingo Hamer
occupation

Once on Ku'damm and back is a tragicomic film from 1983 that deals with the division between Germany and Germany. It was first performed on January 18, 1985 and aired on television two years later on April 29, 1987. The English-language title of the film is Girl in a Boot .

action

Ulla, a young employee of a state-owned company in East Berlin, falls in love with the head chef of the Swiss embassy in the GDR , whom she meets by chance on the street. Although Ulla is not allowed to have any contacts with the West for professional reasons, the cheeky Berlin-based blonde gets involved in an affair with her admirer who is chatting in Swiss-German . Her mother admonishes her to be careful, and her father would rather see her with Atze. Equipped with a diplomatic passport , the head chef at the Swiss embassy switches back and forth almost uncontrollably between east and west in his car. What could be more obvious than to smuggle Ulla, who could only visit West Berlin when she is retired, across the border in the trunk?

The spontaneously planned trip to Kurfürstendamm and back succeeds, but Ulla is not at all comfortable the first time in the west. Supposedly recognized by everyone as East German immediately and possibly even persecuted by GDR informers, and disappointed by the omnipresent money-tailoring without West money in her pocket, she feels insecure and wants to get back across the border as soon as possible. As soon as she got back to the east, she regrets her hasty decision. So there is another joyride where she learns to enjoy the comforts of Western consumer society. Despite her lover's emphatic offer to stay with him in the West, she consistently refuses out of ties to her family.

On the way back there is a traffic accident in which Ulla is injured lying in the trunk by a truck driving into it. She is admitted to a West Berlin hospital and her temporary escape from the GDR is part of a state action. West and East Berlin authorities as well as the Swiss Consul General are taking action and suspect that, on the one hand, an escape aid planned well in advance - and, on the other hand, an espionage campaign . While Ulla and Thomas are then no longer allowed to see each other, Ulla's father is brought to the hospital in West Berlin in order to persuade Ulla personally to return to the GDR without punishment. When the ambulance escorted by state cars leaves the clinic in the direction of the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing , Thomas makes one last eye contact and calls out to Ulla through the car window.

Awards

For her leading role, Ursela Monn received the Ernst Lubitsch Prize in 1985 and the gold film volume of the Federal Film Prize .

The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title “particularly valuable”.

Reviews

  • "(...) nice conversation with experienced cast." (Rating: 1½ out of 4 possible stars = moderate) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" , 1990

useful information

Although the film could only be shot in the western part of Berlin, it is a historical document of the division of Berlin. The passing of an original border crossing was recorded with a telephoto lens , and original installations of the Berlin Wall can also be seen from the west side as well as some East German film props, in particular various GDR vehicle types, uniforms and typical everyday objects.

The film premiered in 1985 at the Filmbühne Wien cinema on Ku'damm.

The model for the film was the real case of Peter and Christa Gross-Feurich : In 1975, the chef from the Swiss embassy in the GDR wanted to smuggle his East Berlin girlfriend across the border in the trunk, but was betrayed. The two had previously spent a weekend in West Berlin.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV" . Extended new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 186
  2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung : The cook who came from the cold, August 17, 1999