Trace of Stones

This landmark East German film from 1966 - a DEFA production - fell foul of the Socialist Union Party and was shown for only a few days before it got banned - not screened again until the autumn of 1989. Reason for the uproar? The film portrayed Communist Party officials and life in the former German Democratic Republic in a less than flattering light…

SPUR DER STEINE (German original title) revolves around three key figures: Hannes Balla (Manfred Krug), the independent foreman employed at a (fictional) petrochemical plant who’s a bit of a rebel yell, adamant to keep his independent spirit intact, sticking a finger up to authority and not even shying away from dodgy methods such as bribery to get his hand of materials needed for the construction site - materials which aren’t always easy to come by. Despite being a constant troublemaker, he’s respected and liked by his colleagues (called ‘Ballas’) due to his caring and loyal attitude towards his mates.

Trouble starts when Kati Klee (Krystyna Stypulko) arrives. She’s a strong-willed young engineer who is full of ambition and idealism and does everything by the book. Suffice to say, she and Balla, despite the fact that he considers her to be attractive and doesn’t make a secret out of the fact that he fancies her, soon clash while Kati begins to feel uneasy over being the only female among the male workforce.
Add Socialist Party Secretary Werner Horrath (Eberhard Esche) to the sizzling brew, who has been dispatched to the building site with orders to ‘tame’ the rebellious Balla and restore order and morale at the workplace. Horrath is someone who not only does things by the book, he lives by his book of rules and regulations as if his life depended on it. His hugely disciplined and timid demeanour suggests a person who has no problems when it comes to abiding to socialist-communist rules but never judge a book by its cover… for Horrath, married with kids, also falls for Kati and the two begin a secret affair, though Balla soon gets wind of it.

The private rivalry between the two men soon escalate and while Horrath and Kati secretly meet in her flat (a ramshackle apartment organised for her by the party), the flat turns out to be a rented room in the apartment of a likeable old lady who thinks highly of Horrath, believing he is Kati’s boyfriend, but when Balla also unexpectedly turns up, she begins to suspect that Horrath may not be Kati’s actual boyfriend but her lover.
Over the following weeks, a love triangle develops between Horrath and Kati, who pressures him to leave his wife and kids for her, and between Kati and Balla who, despite always swimming against the grain, seduces Kati with his charm and charisma.

Things take a turn for the worse when Kati falls pregnant, with Horrath being the father. Not only does this jeopardise his marriage but his status as a party member whose task it is to keep moral and discipline upright. When Balla finds out that Kati is pregnant, he suspects Horrath but Kati keeps stumm, not only in order to protect Horrath but in order to protect herself from possible disciplinary action. Unfortunately, when her pregnancy can no longer be concealed, the top dogs and powers that be give Kati a really hard time when she refuses to name the father of her unborn child, but when it emerges that Horrath is the ‘culprit’, he is framed and interrogated at a tribunal for his moral, political and ideological failures… This then would undoubtedly be the part which caused all the controversy back in the day, namely the portrayal of the Socialist Party as a cold, rigid and brainwashed authoritarian circle.

This is powerful and thought-provoking stuff indeed and an example of the repressive former East German regime. Frank Beyer (‘Jakob the Liar’) received ‘punishment’ for having directed ‘Trace of Stones’ it goes without saying - he had to leave DEFA Productions (translate this as ‘he got fired’) and wasn’t allowed to direct any films for several years. Instead, the Socialist Party sent him to Dresden for ‘rehabilitation’ where he was reduced to working at the State Theater until 1969.

TRACE OF STONES has just been released on Blu-ray in a Limited Edition (2,000 copies) and is housed in an O-card slipcase with Collector’s booklet. Bonus features include:
Original German audio and Optional English subtitles / The 11th Plenum: A Cultural Devastation – substantial archival documentary on the 11th Plenum, which resulted in the banning of several DEFA productions / Trace of Time: Director Frank Beyer – feature-length archival documentary on director Frank Beyer / Children’s Home (Angelika Andrees & Petra Tschörtner, 1978) – DEFA documentary on the residents of an East German children’s home, banned until after the fall of the Berlin Wall.