Abschied. Brechts letzter Sommer (2000)
No stats available
Directors
Cast
Josef Bierbichler, Monica Bleibtreu, Jeanette Hain, Elfriede Irrall
On the last day of his summer holiday, Bertolt Brecht gathers with those closest to him as political surveillance shadows their conversations.
The story
In the summer of 1956, Bertolt Brecht spends his final day of vacation at his summer house in Buckow, East Germany, before returning to Berlin to prepare for a new season at the Berliner Ensemble. His wife Helene Weigel, daughter Barbara, former lover Ruth Berlau, current lover Käthe Reichel, and the young couple Isot Kilian and Wolfgang Harich are also there. As the group swims, eats, drinks, and debates art, politics, and life, the Stasi watches them, intent on imprisoning government critic Harich. A melancholy sense of parting hangs over the gathering.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The film is set in the summer of 1956 in East Germany. Bertolt Brecht is spending the summer at his summer house in Brandenburg, in the small town of Buckow. It is the last day of his vacation before Brecht has to return to Berlin to prepare for the new season of the Berliner Ensemble. All the important women in his life have gathered at the summer house: his wife Helene Weigel and their daughter Barbara, his former lover Ruth Berlau, and his current lover Käthe Reichel. The young couple Isot Kilian and Wolfgang Harich are there too. Isot Kilian is not immune to the theater patriarch’s advances, either. The garden borders a small lake, where people swim. The group chats, eats and drinks, and philosophizes about art, politics, and the meaning of life. All of this is being observed by the Stasi, who want to imprison the government critic Wolfgang Harich. Helene Weigel manages to stop them. A melancholy sense of parting hangs over it all. Brecht dies four days later in his apartment in Berlin.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…