ABSCHIED VON GESTERN

What separates us from yesterday is not a rift but a changed position: One of Kluge's narrative masterpieces, adapted from his original story Anita G., Abschied von gestern (Yesterday Girl) follows a young woman in her pursuit of happiness and liberation. The film opens with its protagonist appearing in court for the theft of a sweater. From this innocuous beginning, the film develops into a treatise on the underlying hypocrisy of post-war German society. Three times Germany: during the time of the Third Reich, her parents are picked up one morning; then, Anita G. comes from the East; finally, she freezes her way through the West. Kluge's masterful use of narrative diversions and montage in this film earned him the nickname the "German Godard" and won him the Silver Lion in Venice in 1966.

This work has been digitised in the frame of DCA Project