Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones). 1965–66. East Germany. Directed by Frank Beyer. With Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypułkowska, Eberhard Esche. 134 min.
Filmed in widescreen black-and-white, Trace of Stones is perhaps the best-known East German film in today’s Germany, a daring political statement presented in the form of an interpersonal drama. On a construction site plagued by shortages and poor planning, two men from different worlds confront each other—the swaggering pragmatist who leads an elite crew of carpenters, and the obedient bureaucrat who represents the Party’s interests. They fall in love with the same woman, an engineer on her first big assignment.