Verbotene Liebe (1990)

Thirteen-year-old Barbara and eighteen-year-old high school student Georg have known each other for a long time. They are neighbors and get along well. Over time, their friendship grows into a deep love. However, since Barbara is below the age of consent, their relationship is considered reprehensible by those around them. After the two have sex for the first time in an empty house, some youths even think they can treat Barbara as fair game and try to rape her. They also have serious problems with their parents. The fathers of the two have been enemies for a long time in particular. Georg’s father had come to the village as part of the “Industrial Workers to the Countryside” campaign, but his idealism has now given way to lethargy and bitterness, especially in view of the material success of Barbara’s father, their neighbor. He is interested mainly in money and is otherwise either incapable of understanding or primitive. At last, he has found a way to compromise his adversary, the “comrade,” and reports Georg for sexually abusing a child. There is little understanding at school, too. The school principal initiates disciplinary measures, and Georg’s future seems ruined: he can no longer go on to university. Only the teacher, Laube, initially stands by the two and becomes a friend to Barbara. Eventually, their classmates also take the couple’s side. The film ends with the verdict against Georg being announced. It addresses the contradiction between a law that is sensible in itself but rigid (§ 148 of the GDR Criminal Code) and the couple’s obviously genuine love. The film does not reveal a final verdict, but it does indicate that the lovers marry later, for which Georg “pays a small price.”