Hot Summer (Heisser Sommer)

Streaming video - 2014

For summer vacation, two groups of high school students hitchhike to the Baltic Sea, where fun and trouble mix to create ties of friendship and love. After DEFA made a number of "pessimistic" films for teenagers, this musical was a breakthrough into unrestrained entertainment and was one of East Germany's top box-office hits. Hot Summer was featured in the 1997 documentary on East Bloc musicals, Eastside Story. While hitchhiking to the Baltic, a group of twelve girls from Leipzig meets a group of eleven boys from Karl Marx Stadt and they take bets on who will get to the Baltic first. Naturally, the girls have an advantage over the boys when it comes to hitchhiking, so the boys have to make up for this blow to their egos. When... the two groups finally meet up on a Baltic beach, the posturing continues; but there is not much cohesion and couples form and withdraw from the group. The love triangle between Brit, Wolf and Kai starts to take center stage. East Germany's own unique version of Grease, since its 1993 comeback Hot Summer has developed a cult following. more