The Flight

The Flight

Die Flucht
🎞️ Movie 94 min DE
โ˜… 6.7 /10 1977

When Dr. Schmith's (Armin Mueller-Stahl) proposal for international research on infant mortality is rejected, he decides to leave East Germany and strikes a deal with an escape agency that promises him a leading position at a children's hospital in West Germany. But then the decision is reversed: the project is approved and his international colleagues want Dr. Schmith to head the GDR section. Moreover, he falls in love with his new colleague, Katharina (Jenny Gröllmann). Schmith initially tries to ignore the arrangements he made with the escape agency, but they blackmail him. Things soon turn deadly... As the topic of escaping to the West was taboo in the GDR, The Flight is an exception in East German film history. The film, which won the Grand Prix at the Karoly Vary International Film Festival in 1978, was the last one Armin Mueller-Stahl made at the East German DEFA studios. In 1980, only two years after the release of the film, he left East Germany for the West because of professional restrictions imposed upon him after he joined protests against the expatriation of the dissident singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann.

Cast

Jenny Gröllmann
Jenny Gröllmann
Katharina Krause
Erika Pelikowsky
Erika Pelikowsky
Hilde Mittenzwei
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Schmith
Wilhelm Koch-Hooge
Wilhelm Koch-Hooge
Meissner
Winfried Glatzeder
Winfried Glatzeder
Zeiske
๐Ÿ‘ค
Simone von Zglinicki
Frau Seebohm
Johanna Clas
Johanna Clas
Frau Lautenschläger
๐Ÿ‘ค
Gertraud Klawitter
Frau Kraus
Volkmar Kleinert
Volkmar Kleinert
Dr. Wendt
๐Ÿ‘ค
Dietrich Laube
Zenker
๐Ÿ‘ค
Günther Fischer
Composer
๐Ÿ‘ค
Claus Neumann
Cinematographer