Whither Germany?

Slim but charming exercise in leftist naturalism, important because Bertolt Brecht wrote the script and collaborated closely with Bulgarian director Slatan Dudow. The film takes an unsentimental look at a relocation camp for homeless workers, most of whom are too depressed and passive to attempt to overcome their sorry circumstances. The heroine embraces an opportunity for political struggle and moral uplift offered by a left-wing youth organization. Far less "Brechtian" than many later films made in Brecht's name, KUHLE WAMPE features episodes of ironically overstated melodrama and a scene of political street theatre; the most memorable sequence is the visually en...