Der Geteilte Himmel

Based on the story of the same name by Christa Wolf, which was published in May 1963 and enjoyed a circulation of 160,000 copies in its first year, DEFA film DIVIDED HEAVEN was shot by Konrad Wolf in 1964. Employing an artfully interwoven design, he describes the processes of consciousness experienced by a young woman whose boyfriend has left the GDR and who subsequently collapses both physically and mentally. The present and the past flow into one another and settings would appear to correspond, whereby many of the images are also of a symbolic nature. In the process Wolf provides "a remarkably sophisticated description of the internal situation in the GDR, in which nothing is glossed over and Republikflucht even comes across as comprehensible" (Ulrich Gregor). DIVIDED HEAVEN proved to be an aesthetically modern and politically courageous film that evoked a “socialism with a human face” and, despite all its criticism of the GDR, embodied the hope that the system could be reformed.