For the next four Mondays, starting March 30, Frau Usa Engelbrecht invites you to a German film series. The movies illustrate, in a very entertaining and captivating way, major historic events in Germany and Europe: World War II, Division of Germany into East and West Germany, construction of the Berlin Wall and finally life in Germany after re-unification. The movies are in German with English subtitles. Admission is free.

Place: Spears Music/Art Center, Room 102
Time: 7 pm

March 30: Deutschland Bleiche Mutter (Germany Pale Mother).
Drama. 123 minutes.
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna move in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but is not the same person as in 1939. He and Lene find it difficult to live together again. Excellent movie. Will give you a very good understanding of World War II and Post World War II Germany and Europe. As you can imagine the subject area is serious and can be depressing.

April 6: Der Tunnel (The Tunnel).
Berlin 1961. The true story of flight to freedom. Based on the true story of a group of East Berliners escaping to West Berlin by digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Captivating! Almost 3 hours but doesn't feel like it.
Go there with the understanding you can leave early ...
I promise you will not want to leave before the end of the movie.

April 13: Sonnenallee (Sun Avenue).
101 minutes.
A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The antics of these kids, their families, their ÒWest GermanÓ friends and relatives who come to visit, and of the East German border guards, all illustrate the absurdity of everyday life on the Sonnenallee and therefore throughout the former East Germany. A funny piece of history.

April 20: Good-bye Lenin.
121 minutes.
Former East Germany 1990. In order to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved East Germany, as she knew it, has disappeared. I grew up in former West Germany, so my knowledge of life as it used to be in East Germany was fragmented at best. I gained a whole new perspective and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It is hilarious!