Two East German War Films

I recently watched two East German movies about World War Two on Kanopy. Here are my initial impressions. “Star-Crossed Lovers” [Königskinder] (DEFA, 1962), dir. Frank Beyer This film is about two young men and a young woman, friends since childhood, who are separated in the Nazi era because of their circumstances and choices. The film is well made and interesting, but the scenes that depict the men fleeing the Wehrmacht for the Red Army and being well received strain belief, which interfered with my enjoyment of the story. Granted, the film is expressionist, so believability might be beside the point. For me, there was also precious little character development. Still, the way the piece was shot, including flashbacks and repeating motifs, is interesting. It also yielded a useful story for its time. Instead of broken men returned after many years of Soviet captivity,1 we have a Communist German who never compromises his principles. For that he lands in a concentration camp and then on…