Guenter Junghans Movies
- 1998
Oskar, an Olympic swimming champion, makes headlines for over fourteen years as the most wanted jewelry thief in Europe before his arrest in 1987. Upon his release from prison, he meets Leni, who is a factor worker, an occasional prostitute and a cabaret artist. The attraction is immediate the moment they make eye contact. However, Oskar disappears into the crowd. Leni's search for Oskar becomes increasingly desperate whereas Oskar is lost in a dilemma. As fate might have it, one day he catches a glimpse of Leni, which could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Screened as part of the New German Films program of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Redl, Anna Thalbach, (more)
- 1983
This story of mistaken identity was taken from the experiences of writer Hermann Kant when he was a 19-year-old soldier in the German Wehrmacht. In the film, the soldier is drafted into the army just after the siege of Stalingrad in 1943 and is taken prisoner in Poland, where a mother has accused him of being the SS man who killed her daughter earlier in the war. While in prison he is given dangerous work in the prison yard but survives intact. Eventually, the soldier hears about the extermination camps of Lublin, Auschwitz and other sites, and has changed his feelings toward the army. Meanwhile, his case is coming up for review and even a jail companion from his same army unit is afraid to come to his defense because of possible repercussions. This film was withdrawn from competition at the 1983 Berlin Film Festival because of objections to its content. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Groth, Fred Dueren, (more)
- 1983
The two little female protagonists in this film both show an ingrained stubborn streak when it comes to bending to anyone else's will, and both have less-than-ideal personal lives. Tilla (Carmen Sarge) is chubby, bossy and brash, and has most of her fifth-grade classmates by the throat. Anna (Jana Mattukat) is skinny, shy, and forever fantasizing about a magic land where she can travel to the Milky Way. When Tilla and Anna clash at school, neither gives in to the other. But one day, Tilla ruins Anna's bike, and the teacher forces her to set things right, or else. Anna, in the meantime, has been so humiliated by Tilla that she cannot go home and face her family, and when she tries to hide out under a bridge, Tilla comes along and scolds her because she is upsetting her mother and she should not do that. Tilla herself has no mother. Finally, the two antagonistic children end up stranded in a hayloft, and though their disagreements seem certain to continue, a sneaking appreciation of each other's chutzpah mellows out their differences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1980
In this poignant tale of a lonely old woman's past deed of heroism, a grandmother (Hertha Thiele) sits quietly weaving baskets at a lakeside villa and rows out to an island in the lake to collect reeds for her work. Her grandson is forced to defend her odd behavior one day and has to ask his father why she goes out so far in the boat when the same reeds grow near the shore. It slowly emerges that the woman has hidden a POW on the island during World War II and regularly rows there to keep him supplied with food. The man is captured by the Nazis in spite of her efforts, and when she is brought in for questioning, she said she was only collecting water reeds to make baskets. This film was part of a Hertha Thiele retrospective in Berlin in 1983. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Guenter Junghans, (more)
- 1978
Ottokar is a schoolchild whose sense of right and wrong is, some would say, a little overdeveloped. When he sees an injustice of any kind happening, he just has to intervene, despite the fact that he is only 10-years old and small for his age -- and many of the bullies he confronts are older and bigger than he is. Even though he is a whirlwind of righteousness, he is not a tale-telling goody-two-shoes. When a schoolmate tries to prove his manhood by drinking and behaving foolishly, Ottokar gets into trouble for failing to report the other fellow's misbehavior to school authorities. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Young Nazi soldiers contend with the invasion of the Red Army in the spring of 1945 in this World War II drama. Despite all indications that the war is lost for Germany, many vow to fight to the death for Hitler and their beloved homeland. Werner Holt (Klaus-Peter Thiele) eventually realizes the effort is fruitless and deserts. Ironically, his friend who remains loyal is hung by the SS who mistake him for a deserter, and Holt exacts revenge by gunning down the SS unit from a basement window. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus-Peter Thiele
