Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?

Berlin at the start of the thirties. The film opens on a montage of newspaper headlines about unemployment figures climbing without a break. A young man looks for work in the city while at home the unpaid rent is discussed. Anni's brother gives in to despair and the family loses him. The landlord then puts them out of their flat, and they move to a garden colony called Kuhle Wampe, a settlement of tents and huts. The screenplay is Bertolt Brecht's and the music Hanns Eisler's; the director is Slatan Dudow. The film was censored as early as 1932, a section of it was cut, and it was banned from screening twice; when the Nazis came to power it was removed altogether. In telling the story of one family it asks a direct question, and it does not hide its answer. It is the best known example of Weimar-era workers' cinema.