Lissy

Berlin, 1932. LISSY begins and ends with a pan shot across the rooftops of the city to a bustling intersection with an elevated S-Bahn station. It was Konrad Wolf's third feature, but his first major cinema success and also the first film he set in Berlin. He showed streets, backyards, allotment gardens, and stairwells, again and again, some polished to a shine, others run-down. Lissy (Sonja Sutter) moves between two poles; the daughter of a social democratic trade unionist from the "red" district of Wedding had hoped that her social status would be improved by marrying Frohmeyer (Horst Drinda), a lowly clerk. Upward mobility is only achieved when Frohmeyer joins the SA and is appointed Sturmbannführer after committing acts of violence against communists. When Lissy realizes the price of her newfound prosperity, her doubts grow. National Socialism is one of the leitmotifs in Konrad Wolf's oeuvre. In LISSY, he sheds light on the social dynamics which enabled the spread of Nazi ideology. (Milena Gregor)