Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

didi-5 This East German film by Konrad Wolf did not reach the West until after the Cold War, and is rarely seen today. It concerns the story of a corporal, named 'Walter' (although his real name is never known) and played by Jürgen Frohriep with quiet complexity, and his relationship with interred German Jewess Ruth (played by the beautiful and powerful Sasha Krusharska) against the background of Nazism in Bulgaria, populated by inhuman oafs like Kurt (a repellent character played well by Erik S. Klein), and freedom fighters like Petko (Stefan Pejchev) and Blashe (Georgi Naumov).The film was made in 1959, centering on events in 1943, when the Jews were rounded up, held prisoner, and eventually shipped to the death camp at Auschwitz. It does not flinch from their predicament, denied medicine, herded together like cattle, huddled quietly and hopelessly in congested rooms. The music score uses Jewish songs to pinpoint the action and underline scenes which are otherwise silent - panning along the faces of the refugees in their dignified acceptance of their situation, or following the death transports as the men, women, and children are packed into carriages and sent away from Bulgaria like animals going to the slaughter.The power of this film is in its matter-of-fact treatment of what the Germans did to their Jewish countrymen and compatriots, in the name of racial purity, and how out of this one human relationship between - on the surface of it - enemies could grow and flourish. This concentration on Walter and Ruth makes the ending (also the beginning of the film, before the flashback) all the more poignant and touching.

Nirankush Mukherjee Yes, I saw this film myself back in Calcutta, India at the Goethe Institut. Unfortunately films such as these do not have any kind of DVD/VHS distribution at all. And that's not unusual. As I write, even the more well-known of the East European directors like Andrzej Wajda, Krzystof Zanussi have so little distribution. So no wonder others are relatively unheard of. Among the East Germans like Konrad Wolf (director of this one), I think Frank Beyer has one on DVD (Jakob the liar - that too probably after the success of its English remake), and Wolfgang Staudte has one with his 1946 masterpiece - The murderers are among us. Sorry I spoke so little about the film itself, but it's so frustrating that European arthouse is so much subordinated to Hollywood.

Yancey Even the two German states co-existed side by side for almost 40 years the cultural exchange was a minimum. One thing, West Germans should learn from the neighbors is the fact how seriously the East German cinema treated the difficult subject of the holocaust. STERNE (Stars) is one of the most touching movies I've ever seen. The tragic love story between a Jewish school teacher and a German soldier is filmed with decency and careful respect. Off course there is no happy-end. The movie ends with a shattering close up of the Jewish girl Ruth (Sascha Kruscharska) - staring out of the death train's barred skylight. How sad that even a movie like this didn't reach the Western audience during the cold war.

ivan-22 I saw this modest yet powerful film at Occidental College over a decade ago. There were only about two dozen people in the small classroom. There couldn't be a greater contrast with Hollywood's blockbusters. Instead of tormenting us with the horrors of war, this small screen, black and white film envelops us in a cozy intimacy and tries to reach for our deepest humanity and sense of poetry. We get the feeling that war is above all a profound shame, and that everyone is human. That's much more powerful than seeing a lot of combat footage. Small films like this do not even register on the radar of a jaded public. If they are not promoted by discerning people, they will fade into oblivion. Ironically, the most tragic thing about this film, is that it fails to make an impact. Don't you believe that the cream always rises to the top.