Stunde Null

War's end, a village outside Leipzig. A bunch of representative German types learn that they are not, after all, in the American zone: they have been traded for a piece of Berlin. Edgily they await the Russians who on arrival prove to be as loutish and dangerous as feared. Teenage hero and heroine escape, but the first jeep-load of Americans they meet brutally disabuse them of any idea of a safe haven. Ende. There's a bit of a McGuffin involving buried Nazi treasure, but mainly this is Reitz looking back in anger - though how sympathetic non-Germans will feel towards his characters' plight is an interesting question. Stylistically, pre-Heimat Reitz veers uncertainly between relaxed naturalism and Wajda-like expressionism.