The Life and Loves of Beethoven

Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.

Silent Barricade

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

A Birthday to Remember

Lene Thurner is standing on a train platform in Munich. She has to decide: back to Berlin where she lives, or toward the south, where at the foot of the Alps her family lives on the lonely farm “Hierankl”.

Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai

A traditional chinese story about a girl, Zhu Yingtai, daughter of the noble Mr. Zhu, who goes to Hangzhou to study, dressed as a boy. There, she meets a student, Liang Shanbo, with whom she becomes good friends. They go to school together for the following years, and Zhu gradually falls in love with Liang.

Morning Over the Motherland

The university student Bobchev joins a youth brigade. The commander's council entrust Bobchev with a literacy course for members of the brigade. Velizarov and Monkata arrive in the camp to carry out sabotage. They place explosives on the dam, and attempt to win Bobchev over by means of intrigue. There is a storm: the camp is put on the alert. Everyone joins the rescue work at the dam. After a long struggle with Velizarov, Bobchev cuts the burning fuse of the explosive. The dam does not yield to the pressure of the flood. Everymen sing in Jubilation.

Anna Szabó

A female worker in Socialist Hungary gains the acceptance of her male colleagues.

Water for Canitoga

In the spring of 1905, the water conduit project in the Canadian city of Canitoga is set to be completed. For years, the completion had been marred by sabotage. Engineer Oliver Montstuart commands the last blasting operation. But again, the explosive charge is too large and thus, further construction is forestalled again. When Montstuart confronts foreman Westbrook, the foreman threatens him with a knife. In self-defence, Montstuart shoots him. Now, he has to flee.

Träumerei

Truxa

The famous tightrope artist Truxa is drinking at the Artisan bar in New York. He meets a young man, Husen, and gives him his stage name Truxa. He is to take the real Truxa's place at a circus show in Wintergarten, Berlin.

Bicycle Thieves

Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

Divá Bára

This is a romantic story about a brave, self-made girl, despised daughter of a shepherd. She is not afraid of anything - neither night nor swimming. But the superstitious villagers are telling weird stories about her and about all sorts of strange things, even her conjunction with the powers of hell.

The Queen's Lover

Exiled from the court of Spain, Don Salluste, the chief of police, wants to take revenge on the Queen. One day he meets Ruy Blas, a young student who happens to be a lookalike of Don Cesar, his nephew. Salluste disguises Ruy Blas and presents him as Don Cesar. It doesn't take long before Ruy Blas, intelligent, virtuous and generous as he is becomes popular and the Queen, who has fallen in love with him, appoints him Prime Minister. All seems for the best in the best of worlds but Salluste has not forgotten his revenge, far from that ...

Wetterleuchten am Dachstein

Hannes Kähls von Kählsberg has hired himself out as a head farmhand on the estate out of love for Jutta, the beautiful young lady of the Salzerhof. Since she was widowed, Jutta has developed into a proud, domineering person who does not show Hannes the unconfessed feelings she has for him. She fights doggedly for the land of the salt mountain, which is the state salt works authority wants to dispute. Hannes urges her to give up because he thinks large parts of the underground tunnel are in danger of collapsing.

Kalin The Eagle

Constantinople, 1883. During an outing to the Black Island Edith, the adopted daughter of the French ambassador, is saved by Kalin the Eagle. She learns that he is a Bulgarian revolutionary from the April Uprising of 1876. With her help Kalin the Eagle escapes and returns to the liberated Bulgaria, where he is drawn to the socialist movement. Edith finds out that Kalin is in fact her father, and sets out in search of him. Kalin the Eagle is notable as the first movie made by the nationalized film industry after World War II in the newly formed People's Republic of Bulgaria.

The Heroes of September

The film is dedicated to the uprising, which broke out in Bulgaria in September 1923. All characters, with the exception of the leaders of the uprising Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov, are symbolic characters. The central figures, Stefan and Peter, impersonate the motive forces behind the uprising - the workers and the peasants. They are involved in worker's strikes, in the stormy events of the First World War and the Soldier's uprising in 1918. They also participate in the bloody clashes of the September uprising and suffer its defeat after they have seen too late the need for concerted action by communists and agrarians.

The Heart of a Queen

As the title "The Queen's Heart" suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott's eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her.