Die Kinder von Golzow: Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe

Before that:
The children of Golzow: When I go to school ...
Winfried Junge, DD 1962
Screenplay: based on an idea by Karl Gass; Cinematography: Hans Dumke, Walfried Labuszewski; Editing: Christel Hemmerling; Music: Kurt Grottke. 35mm, b/w, 13 min. German

Light black and white shots: Girls, boys, two young women at a sandpit. Summer 1961 in the village of Golzow, district of Frankfurt (Oder), GDR. The DEFA film team will soon return to document the first day of school and gather impressions of the classroom. Something is beginning. The Children of Golzow will one day be "the oldest project of long-term cinematic observation", comprising 20 films. "The playful idea: to watch a life. A second, third, tenth." Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe draws on the growing archive, with the decisive contribution of Barbara Junge, and fans out into the lives of young adults who have different experiences after finishing compulsory schooling: going on to school and then to university, learning a profession straight away, being called up, having a child. Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler's "Children's Hymn", which the film title quotes, spans a musical thread. (Marion Biet / Nicole Kandioler / Isabella Reicher)

Photo: DEFA Foundation