Rent Somewhere in Berlin / Police Raid (1947)
3.0 of 5 from 1 ratings
2h 57min
- General info
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- Synopsis:
The first film studio to begin operating in post-war Germany, DEFA was officially authorised to begin making films in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946. Overseen by the Soviet Military Administration, one of its primary mandates was to aid in the denazification of Germany by focusing on anti-fascist themes in films that would ruminate on the literal and figurative wreckage left behind by the Third Reich. Often shot on location in the ruins of Berlin, these early DEFA productions have come to be called Trümmerfilme or "rubble films," and remain some of the most important pictures the studio ever made.
Somewhere in Berlin (1946)After WWII, Berlin lies in ruins. For Gustav (Charles Brauer), Willi (Hans Trinkaus) and their friends the rubble provides an adventurous, dangerous playground. Especially for Gustav, it helps pass the time, as he longs for his father's return from a POW camp. One day a stranger arrives, looking helpless and hopeless...Gerhard Lamprecht built his reputation during the 1920's and '30's with films like Emil and the Detectives (1931, script Billy Wilder) and socially-critical Berlin films based on the drawings of Heinrich Zille. In Somewhere in Berlin-his first postwar film, made just months after the cessation of hostilities-he portrays the people of the shattered city with precision and psychological realism.
Police Raid (1947)
Hauptkommissar/Chief Inspector Friedrich Naumann - played by old pro Paul Bildt, veteran actor of over 180 movies - operating in a Berlin still reeling from the immediate devastation WWII caused on all levels, attempts to break the most ruthless gang's grip upon the black market which is a necessary evil in this zero hour and brings the worst and the innocent into the same cauldron. Naumann targets the Club "Ali Baba" to strike a blow at its owner Goll (Harry Frank), the black market's kingpin, but one of Naumann's own men, Becker, is an informer blackmailed by Goll to keep him one step ahead of the law's movements. After the unsuccessful raid and the "official" closing of the file Naumann continues his investigations by himself, but as he gets too close to busting all up by finding evidences of irrefutable nature he is murdered. Not long and another Naumann enters the scene: Friedrich's PoW returned son Paul begins working as Goll's driver in the drug pusher gang. The different connections between gang leader/club owner Goll, sidekick and employee Yvonne (Nina Kosta), informant Heinz Becker (the blackmailed workmate of murdered Chief Inspector Naumann) and son Paul Naumann (approaching the moment he understands Goll brought about his father's death) provide tense levels of interaction. The police won't let it rest after Friedrich Naumann's murder and make a second attempt to raid the Ali Baba Club without Goll being tipped off this time and the police take him down with the gang.- Actors:
- Charles Brauer, Harry Hindemith, Hedda Sarnow, Fritz Rasp, Gerhard Haselbach, Hans Leibelt, Paul Bildt, Magdalene von Nußbaum, Lili Schoenborn-Anspach, Gaston Briese, Lotte Loebinger, Edda Meyer, Walter Bluhm, Hans Trinkaus, Karl Hannemann, Georg Kroning, Isolde Laugs, Eduard Wenck, Käthe Jöken-König, Hans Alexander
- Directors:
- Gerhard Lamprecht, Werner Klingler
- Writers:
- Gerhard Lamprecht, Harald G. Petersson
- Aka:
- Irgendwo in Berlin / Razzia (Raid)
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Countries:
- Germany
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/09/2025
- Run Time:
- 177 minutes
- Languages:
- German LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- New commentary on 'Somewhere in Berlin' by East German cinema scholar Elizabeth Ward
- New commentary on 'Police Raid' by crime cinema expert Sergio Angelini
- From the Rubble - new interview with socialist cinema expert Claire Knight on the founding of DEFA and its early productions
- Crimewave - new video essay by DEFA historian Sebastian Heiduschke on 'Police Raid'
- Rebuilding Berlin (1946) - DEFA documentary on the post-war rebuilding of Berlin
- Rebuilding Potsdam (1946) - DEFA documentary on the post-war rebuilding of Potsdam
- Death Camp Sachsenhausen (1946) - DEFA documentary on the Holocaust and Sachsenhausen concentration camp
- The Eyewitness 1946/01 - archival newsreel featuring DEFA's first animation, Underground Scare
