Divided Heaven

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

Based on Christa Wolf’s internationally acclaimed novel and criticized in the GDR for questioning the construction of the Wall, Divided Heaven was made during a brief cultural thaw in the early 1960s. Strongly influenced by French Nouvelle Vague cinema, this classic film directed by the legendary Konrad Wolf (I Was Nineteen, Goya, Solo Sunny) was praised by critics as one of Germany’s 100 Most Important Films.

What the Critics are Saying

"Unusual and extraordinary...masterful! An important cinematic legacy of the GDR"
- Filmzentrale

"Konrad Wolf ’s DEFA classic is one of the most important films about the German-German division through this day." - 3SAT TV

"Clearly reflects the rich stylistic currents that characterized European filmmaking in the early 60s." - Joshua Feinstein, The Triumph of the Ordinary

Read That Was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the "New" Germany by Leonie Naughton