Die Brücke (DDR 1949)

This is not the famous film from 1958 about young boys during the last days of the second world war, but a film from East Germany.
This is astonishing, as refugees or even resettlers from the former German territories in the east are generally not a subject in GDR's topography. It is said that this is the only film that deals with the subject.
The resettlers from unmentioned territories arrive at a village over a rotten bridge. The villagers are hostile. The resettlers try to conserve their village community, but also strive to make their skills useful in the new surroundings. There is also developing a romance between one of the refugees and the villagers. At the end the the refugees help the villagers to extinguish a fire.

Never forget: our civilization is under attack

The film has good intentions, but also serious shortcomings. The fire at the end is poorly motivated and only helps to bring the movie to an end. It starts as an epic and ends trashy.
It is made clear that the resettlers are victims of the lost war, but it seems that the villagers hardly realise that there has been a war at all. Certainly the writer and director Arthur Pohl had to navigate between was admissible on screen and what everybody knew.
So the result is highly unsatisfying. It is neither educative, dramatic, touching or even worthwhile to remember.
4/10

Jeanette Schultze and Fritz Wagner (who are these people) on the cover of the DVD release