Performance in the Eibenhof culture barn

Winter adé is considered a cult film among movie connoisseurs. A train journey, a conversation in the compartment - this is how it begins Say goodbye to winter. In 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Helke Misselwitz travels by train from Zwickau to Rügen and meets women from a wide variety of backgrounds along the way: a briquette worker, two punkers, a Berlin economist, an 85-year-old celebrating her diamond wedding, a single mother in charge of a children's village - and many others.

In haunting black and white images and with a sensitive, subjective camera, the film tells of their lives under real existing socialism - of desires, frustration, everyday strategies and the gap between the promise of equality and reality. The conversations are open, poetic, political - they capture a mood: a society in upheaval, shortly before the end.

The train becomes a symbol of movement and change. Say goodbye to winter, an ambiguous title, hints at this: The country is on the brink of change - and women are beginning to raise their voices. The film was digitally restored in 2023 and is now considered a classic East German documentary.

„Helke Misselwitz is one of the most important filmmakers of the last DEFA generation. Her cinematic exercises already attracted attention during her studies, but it was not until 1988 that she achieved national recognition with the documentary WINTER ÁDE (1988). The documentary is one of the most important about women in the GDR; longings and sensitivities are expressed unfiltered. “ (Excerpt from DEFA Foundation)

We are delighted to welcome filmmaker Helke Misselwitz to the festival. The film will be followed by a discussion with her.

©TONY VAHL