An Old Love

Frieda Walkowiak is an ambitious director of a collective farm. Although she is talented and hard-working, the men in the commune are reluctant to accept her as their supervisor. August, Frieda's husband, is exasperated by his wife's devotion to her office, which leads to her being absent from home quite often. After she misses their wedding anniversary, August is enraged, and leaves their home with their daughter. Frieda is badly depressed and suffers a breakdown. She is taken to a hospital. August hears of this, comes back to his senses and returns. The family reunites.

• Gisela May as Frieda Walkowiak
• Erich Franz as August Walkowiak
• Doris Abeßer as Helga
• Ezard Haußmann as Lothar
• Peter Sturm as Heinrich Rantsch
• Hans-Peter Minetti as Benno Schulze
• Margot Ebert as Irmgard Strömer
• Harry Gillman as Otto Funke
• Werner Lierck as Räupke
• Rudolf Ulrich as Georg
• Günther Simon as first secretary of the party branch
• J.P. Dornseif as Uhland
• Jochen Thomas as Christopher Schwannecke
• Hans Finohr as old Schwannecke
• Peter Kalisch as Besecke

The film was made in accordance with the demands set forth by the East German establishment in the Cultural Conference of October 1957 and in the 2nd Cinema Conference of July 1958. Both called on filmmakers to concentrate on the theme of collectivization in agriculture, on the background of the ongoing campaign to establish the communal farms.Sabine Brummel. Die Werktätigen in DEFA-Spielfilmen: Propaganda in den Filmen der DDR. Diplomica Verlag (2010). {{ISBN|978-3-8366-9885-6}}. Pages 48–50. The script was based on a story by {{Interlanguage link multi|Werner Reinowski|de}}. It was Frank Beyer's second film.Axel Geiss. Zwischen Anspruch und Auftrag. Freie Universität Berlin (1997). {{OCLC|43472006}}. Page 34.

PROGRESS-Film Verleih, the distributor of An Old Love, promoted the picture as "one that should be viewed in every village."Ralf Schenk. Regie, Frank Beyer. Hentrich (1995). {{ISBN|978-3-89468-156-2}}. Page 160.

The West German Catholic Film Service defined the film as a "well-played film... but completely devoted to its political aim."[http://www.zweitausendeins.de/filmlexikon/?sucheNach=titel&wert=54744 Eine alte Liebe] on the German Film Lexicon. Anke Pinkert noted that An Old Love made a subtle reference to the subjects of post-war displacement and to the bombings during World War II, that were both very controversial at the time.Anke Pinkert. Film and memory in East Germany. Indiana University Press (2008). {{ISBN|978-0-253-21967-1}}. Page 238. Joshua Feinstein cited it as one of the earliest East German pictures that had a female protagonist.Joshua Feinstein. The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949–1989. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-5385-6}}. Page 58. Thomas Koebner wrote that the film was clearly a "vehicle of propaganda to promote the collectivization".Thomas Koebner. Filmregisseure: Biographien, Werkbeschreibungen, Filmographien. Reclam (1999). {{ISBN|978-3-15-010455-2}}. Page 72. Beyer himself referred to it as "not very good."Frank Beyer. Wenn der Wind sich Dreht. {{ISBN|978-3-548-60218-9}}. Page 192.

In 1960, after the last independent farmers became members of the collectives, the film was removed from circulation.

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=|title=Eine alte Liebe }}
• [https://archive.today/20130211013603/http://www.filmportal.de/df/8b/Uebersicht,,,,,,,,E0349201FACE42A5A9C790AD0C316079,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html Eine alte Liebe] on filmportal.de.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725135933/http://www.progress-film.de/de/filmarchiv/film.php?id=710&back=true Eine alte Liebe] on PROGRESS' site.

{{Frank Beyer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Love, An}}

Category:1959 films

Category:East German films

Category:1950s German-language films

Category:German black-and-white films

Category:Films directed by Frank Beyer

Category:Films scored by Joachim Werzlau