Matinee Saxon State Archive: So Comrades, Come Rally! The GDR in Solidarity

In the summer of 1957, the talented amateur filmmaker Alfred Dorn travelled to Moscow for the 6thWorld Youth Games and wandered the Soviet metropolis with his camera in amazement.

A contemporary documentary from Chile about the 1970 presidential election campaign, in support of the candidate Salvador Allende, who was to become world-famous.

After the military coup against Salvador Allende’s socialist government in September 1973, around 2,000 selected Chileans fled to the GDR where they were granted political asylum.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the GDR explicitly supported the UN Partition Plan at first, only to adopt an increasingly one-sided position from 1965 onwards.

Even after 1945, the Jewish resistance against the persecution and murder of the Jews in Europe by the Germans during the Second World War is not present in the collective memory.

In 1945, US President Harry S. Truman authorised the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Japan. In 1969, this amateur movie recalls this decision in a drastic montage of contrasts.

Four GDR citizens, among them the artist Willi Sitte, explain their reasons for supporting Vietnam by a variety of means.

Young people from the GDR and Sierra Leone meet away from well-rehearsed gestures and diplomatic protocols. The guests preserve their independence in both senses of the word.

With the participation of several company and amateur film associations, the film accompanies a trip to Leipzig by delegations from 40 countries on the occasion of the 10thWorld Youth Games in Berlin.