Introduction and Q&A with director Siegfried Kühn

Maria, a rising theater star in Nazi Germany, is in love with Mark, a Jewish actor. She accepts her dream job at a theater in Munich, but Mark is banned from performing—except at the Jewish Kulturbund Theatre in Berlin. Maria discovers she is unable to live without Mark, but the Nazi Nuremberg Laws strictly forbid their relationship. So that they can be together, Maria decides to fake her own suicide and assume a Jewish identity. 

East Germany (DEFA) | 1988 | 92 min | German/English Subtitles | Director: Siegfried Kühn

Short film to be shown before The Actress:

Traces  
Martin Brandt, an unforgettable actor and former member of the Jewish Kulturbund Theater, recites from Nathan the Wise, the play that opened the theater in October 1933.

1989 | 21 min | English Subtitles | Director: Eduard Schreiber

Screening supported by the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.