Farewell (Abschied)

Streaming video - 2016

In August 1914, many young German men euphorically volunteer to join the army. But in Munich Hans Gastl, the son of a militaristic state prosecutor, makes a decision: he won't become a soldier or fight this war. What Hans wants is to change his life, to abandon his class status, his family; but he is not sure where to start. The film tells the story of Hans' upbringing in flashbacks: his tender love for the housemaid, which is brutally repressed by his father; his time at a boarding school for difficult youth; his friendship with a Jew and a worker's son. East German officials criticized this film's cinematic style and withdraw it from wider release after its premiere.