Synopsis:
This Weimar Germany film classic uses an avant-garde, fragmented narrative to tell the story of a working-class family in Berlin in 1931. Survival is difficult, with massive unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression. After Anni’s brother commits suicide in despair, her family finds itself forced to move to Kuhle Wampe, a lakeside camp on the outskirts of Berlin, now home to increasing numbers of unemployed. When Anni’s relationship with Franz ends, she moves back to Berlin and gets involved in the workers’ youth movement. Already censored in March 1932, the film was then banned by the Nazis in 1933 for having “communist tendencies.”
Director Slatan Dudow brought together an exceptionally renowned set of artists, including co-author Bertolt Brecht, cameraman Günther Krampf (Nosferatu), composer Hanns Eisler, noted workers’ movement balladeer Ernst Busch and the actress Hertha Thiele (Girls in Uniform).

Press Comments:
One of the best films of the century. – Village Voice

The politically most radical and formally most innovative film of the period. – Sabine Hake, German National Cinema

Notable for its experimental filmic techniques as well as the intensity of its acting and the stirring songs of Hanns Eisler. - Tate Modern, London

A landmark of committed cinema. - Guardian Unlimited

The one clearly Communist film made during the Weimar Republic. – Reclam Film Guide

Nowhere in the cinema has Brecht’s aesthetic and political theory been so well dramatized and illuminated. – Harvard Film Archive

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