Gudrun Ritter Movies

A relaxing vacation becomes an impromptu family reunion when a family of three takes a sun soaked trip to their summer cottage, only to find the entire extended family unexpectedly showing up on their doorstep. Anna, Robert, and their adolescent son Max were looking forward to a quiet retreat to the Uckermark region of Germany, but their peace is soon shattered by the arrival of children, parents, siblings, and grandchildren. At first everyone does their best just to get along, though it doesn't take long for old wounds to fester and buried secrets to surface. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Kurt Bowe is Jadup and Katrin Knappe is Boel in this German melodrama. The mayor of a small town, Jadup is also the former lover of Boel. When Boel vanishes after being raped, Jadup moves to the head of the suspect list. The longer Boel remains scarce, the more the noose tightens around Jadup's neck. Adapted from the suspense novel by Paul Kanut Schafer, Jadup und Boel was originally filmed in 1981, but didn't hit the film-festival sawdust trail until 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sabine (Petra Laemmel) is an enterprising young girl who has just been dealt a blow at her orphanage. Her beloved teacher is pregnant and now she is deserting Sabine to go away and have her baby. The little girl is barely recuperated from the death of her parents in an automobile accident a few years earlier, and her teacher's imminent departure is more than she can handle. So Sabine runs away for a few days, much to the consternation of the teacher, her teacher's husband, and the police -- who are all out looking for her. After Sabine "escapes" she comes across a circus troupe, she attends a funeral, and infiltrates the band for awhile to "help out" one of the musicians, she leaves and runs into a little Polish boy who is lost and does not know a word of German. After she manages to get him safely to the police station (without anyone noticing her), she continues on with her adventures. Her first night out she spends with a pensioned worker who has partied a little too much earlier in the day -- this was the day of his retirement. As Sabine meets a varied array of adults and children, she is always able to lend them a hand -- and often seems to have more sense than they do. She knows she will have to go back to the orphanage and face the consequences of her idyll -- but by the second day she is already beginning to feel homesick, and so when a patrolling squad car happens to pass her by, she starts figuring out a way to let them find her, without the police being aware of her cooperation in the matter. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The time is World War II and Juergen Siebusch (Thomas Stecher) and his mother (Gudrun Ritter) are retreating along with the German army, just ahead of the invading Russian forces. Both mother and son hole up in the town of Hohengoerse, where Juergen finds some work watching over sheep - and learns a bit about the facts of sheep life that he extrapolates to some advantage when he meets the appealing Amelie (Brit Guelland), daughter of the landowner. He first helps Amelie out and later applies his new-found knowledge in a barn, appropriately enough. As the Red Army draws near, Juergen deserts a hastily put-together "people's force," as he prefers the barn to the gun. Russian soldiers are shown sleeping and snoring next to their tanks, and the local fascist executed - the war is over. When the new Communist government sets up a land reform package, Amelie's mother's land gets divided up into small plots for small farmers. Amelie will have none of it and convinces Juergen to go with her to steal her mother's jewelry from their confiscated estate - not a good move for wholly inexperienced jewel thieves, boding ill for their immediate future. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide