Spur der Steine; drama, Germany, 1966; D: Frank Beyer, S: Eberhard Esche, Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypułkowska, Johannes Wieke, Walter Richter-Reinick

East Germany. Balla is a brute foreman of seven development staff who trigger quite a lot of issues privately, and put on cowboy hats, however are tolerated as a result of they get the job accomplished. A brand new supervisor, the idealistic Horrath, member of the Socialist Social gathering of East Germany, arrives to the development website, but his authority is at first ignored by Balla. Horrath proposes work in three shifts. One other new worker is engineer Kati, however each Balla and Horrath fall in love together with her. She decides to fulfill Horrath in an house, introducing him to the nosy landlord as “Kruger from Leipzig”. After Kati turns into pregnant, the Communist Social gathering members interrogate her in regards to the unknown identification of father, fearing this can injury the occasion’s fame, however Kati refuses to disclose it’s Horrath, since he’s married. When the Social gathering finds out, anyway, Horrath is demoted to an extraordinary employee, however Balla surprisingly goes to defend him. A committee investigation drops the fees in opposition to Horrath, however Kati decides to depart town, anyway, to begin a brand new life.

Frank Beyer’s drama “Hint of Stone” was surprisingly subversive and demanding of the Communist Social gathering, and was thus banned and landed in “bunker” in East Germany till the autumn of Communism. Upon its “re-discovery”, many movie critics rightfully praised it, although it has some omissions—the primary half is sensible and splendidly inventive, however the second half is means too routine and suffers from too extreme dialogues, till it exhausts the viewers’ enthusiasm via the overlong working time of 139 minutes. The primary half has just a few nice moments: in a single scene, a Communist official is holding a protracted speech within the corridor, concluding with: “I want you, women and gents, a welcome to the festivities for the tenth birthday of our Republic!“, inflicting the cynical Balla to show round and take a look at his collague, after they have this change: “The Republic will consider this vivid night even when she might be 20!” – “It will not get to be this previous.” A Social gathering member from the stage replies: “You possibly can reply via your deeds on the development website, colleague Balla!” The brand new characters who arrive to work on the development website are neatly launched—Kati reveals as much as work as an engineer, however an official is reluctant to rent her, explaining: “If at the very least you have been ugly! … The employees will look underneath your skirt on a regular basis!” – “Cannot a girl put on pants?“, which shows her integrity and resourcefulness. 

Supervisor Horrath is the embodiment of the younger, naive newcomer who’s confronted with a darkish actuality examine—in the course of the rain, he meets Balla and stretches out his hand for a handshake. Balla, sporting an enormous cowboy hat, simply appears to be like down, and water from his hat falls down on Horrath’s hand. Since Balla and his colleagues usually put on these black cowboy hats and act defiantly, they might function an emblem for American-style options which might get wild and problematic, however get the job accomplished, difficult the Communist Social gathering management. Horrath then again is the image for quite a few ideological individuals who will get dissatisfied in Communist administration and develop into disillusioned. Remarkably, each male characters bear an reverse character arc: Balla from a chaotic brute to a sort, respectful man who ultimately stands as much as shield Horrath in entrance of the investigation committee, whereas Horrath begins as a person full enthusiasm, solely to sink into despair and cynicism ultimately. The second half is lots weaker, sadly. An excessive amount of time is spent on the Social gathering committee interrogating Kati, whereas the opposite dialogues explaining the love triangle are normal and boring. This ultimately wears the story down and reduces its enjoyment worth. All the pieces was clear already after 10 minutes, there was no have to delay this for a complete hour. Both the film wanted to be shorter or its inspiration wanted to have been extra ample within the final hour. Nonetheless, “Hint of Stones” is a intelligent and bitter depiction of interwoven relations between non-public and enterprise life, and the way they will disrupt one another, and options some superb performances. 

Grade:++