The Rabbit Is Me

Maria Morzeck is a nineteen year old waitress who is refused permission to study. The reason is that her brother Dieter has been sentenced to three years in prison for agitation against the state. Maria begins an affair with Paul, a man much older than her, who turns out to be the judge who sentenced her brother. The film mounts a hard criticism of the judicial order of East Germany. It was finished in 1965 and banned after the plenum of the Central Committee held that same year, at which twelve DEFA films were shelved at once, close to the whole output of the year. The banned films came to be called the rabbit films, after this one. It was not shown until 1990. Angelika Waller and Alfred Müller appear in Kurt Maetzig’s hundred and ten minute East German film.