5:00 p.m.	Silent Country Andreas Dresen (Germany, 1992)

Maja Oelschlägel is principal of the German International School of Silicon Valley, Mountain View. She will lead a discussion following the film.

(Stilles Land). Set in the waning days of the GDR, Andreas Dresen’s debut feature offers a droll take on turbulent times. Into perhaps the least charming of East German industrial port cities—the kind of place where you get a black eye for ordering tea—arrives an idealistic young director fresh from drama school and determined to turn things around at a bedraggled provincial playhouse. With a drunken cast, a disinterested audience, and half the crew gone with the Wende to the other side, he strives to introduce absurdism to a crowd that already knows it well from their daily lives. They may be waiting for Godot, but what they really want is a good TV antenna so they can watch the action unfolding in Berlin. Despite the pineapples and promises tempting them to the West—and a Pozzo who can’t perform without his lucky hat—in this small theater the show must go on, even as the Wall comes down.

—Archer Neilson

• Written by Laila Stieler, Andreas Dresen. Photographed by Andreas Höfer. With Thorsten Merten, Jeannette Arndt, Kurt Böwe, Burkhard Heyl. (98 mins, In German with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From DEFA Film Library)