The Divided Heaven

1964 [GERMAN]

Action / Drama / Romance

5
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 511 511

cold war eastern germany

Plot summary

After a breakdown, Rita returns to her childhood village in 1961. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for the chemist Manfred, ten years her senior; how his enthusiasm about his new chemical process turned to bitter disappointment in the face of official rejection; how he escaped to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built and hoped that she would follow him …

Director

Konrad Wolf Photo
Konrad Wolf

Top cast

Hilmar Thate Photo
Hilmar Thate as Ernst Wendland
Petra Kelling Photo
Petra Kelling as Sigrid
Christoph Engel Photo
Christoph Engel as Liebentrau
Fredy Barten Photo
Fredy Barten as Kneipenwirt
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.02 GB
1280*566
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   de   es   fr   pt   id  
24 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds ...
1.89 GB
1920*848
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   de   es   fr   pt   id  
24 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by frankde-jong 7 / 10

No propaganda, and that alone is a recommendation for an East German film from this period

While watching "Der geteilte Himmel" I had to think of "Cold war" (2018, Pawel Pawlikowski). In both films a romance is troubled by the division of Europe (in the case of "Der geteilte Himmel" even Germany) in East and West.But there are differences too. In "Cold war" the man flees to the West out of idealism and the woman stays in the East due to career considerations. In "Der geteilte Himmel" it is the other way round."Der geteilte Himmel" was made when films from Eastern Germany were almost exclusively propaganda. In this respect "Der geteilte Himmel" is certainly a favorable exception without however being a real great film.The film while being no propaganda for Communism isn't very critical either. The story is told from the perspective of the women, who stays in East Germany out of idealism.There are however critical elements such as the father of the man. He was a Nazi in the Second World War and nevertheless climbed the ladder of the Communist party hierarchy after the war. In this way the film discusses a topic that with respect to West Germany was treated only much later in a film like "Labyrinth of Lies" (2014, Giulio Ricciarelli). The topic is the collective amnesia regarding Nazi crimes in the decades right after the war.The critical elements in the film are rather surprising when you think about it. In the Soviet Union there was a (short) period of cultural liberalism after the death of Stalin, that led to films such as for example "The cranes are flying" (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov). A similar period of cultural liberalism is unknown to me in East Germany.On top of that both director Konrad Wolf and writer Christa Wolf (no family) were no dissidents but rather loyal members of the regime.The film is shot in a dynamic style, the movements of city life symbolising the psychological dynamics in the relationship between Rita and Manfred.
Reviewed by Horst_In_Translation 4 / 10

The script needed to be a lot better

"Der geteilte Himmel" or "The Divided Heaven" is an East German movie that had its 50th anniversary two years ago. It was directed by CKonrad Wolf who also helped in adapting Christa Wolf's novel for the screen here. And there were many more writers working here, which is usually disappointing me if so many people work on a script and when it has such obvious flaws nonetheless. Too many cooks spoil the broth, at least in this case here. With that being said, I don't think this was a terrible film by any means. I think the political context is working well for the most part and makes it interesting on some occasions, but it just wasn't enough for a film that runs for almost 2 hours. The movie is also in black-and-white, even if by 1964 there were still many color films being produced everywhere around the world, but looking at other works from the country too, this was not yet the case for the GDR. The only cast member in the film I am familiar with looking at the names is Hilmar Thate. But even he was fairly forgettable. Same also goes for Renate Blume who did not do too much for me as the one playing the central character of the film. this may have worked better with a more gifted actress. But the worst thing that is pretty much a deal breaker for the negative side here is the dialogs. It was really cringeworthy to listen to the way they were talking. It all sounded so scripted and fake and never felt authentic in a way people would actually talk, even worse than in some Fassbinder films. This also almost destroyed the entire viewing experience for me. And the few positive factors simply weren't enough in terms of quality or quantity to outweigh the bad. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down and unfortunately to me this film is another piece of evidence how the GDR was never a great country in terms of filmmaking as this one is considered by many as one of the best films from the country. A sad state of affairs, that is.
Read more IMDb reviews

No comments yet

Be the first to leave a comment