This 1961 drama-thriller, currently available on Amazon, was a West German production centering around farmers leaving East Germany to flee the collectivization that was taking place.
Being a post-war older film, the actors may not look familiar to many of us focusing on newer films today. That being said, one of the top-billed actors was Christian Doermer, who was in the 2004 version of Operation Valkyrie. Doermer was one of the filmmakers who signed the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, which called for more independent say, less corporate power, in German filmmaking. 20 years later, this group earned the Deutscher Filmpreis.
For the film history fans, Karl Meixner plays a smaller role in this film. He may be recognized from Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse or Flüchtlinge, both released in 1933. Flüchtlinge was awarded a National Film Prize by Goebbels.
This film is in black and white, but is remarkably clear in its current form. It shows the mob mentality as neighbors gathered together to coerce all to combine their farms into one large collectively owned farm. We can hear train announcements and see checks of identification and allowances to travel. We see generational issues as young people are more surrounded by government propaganda than their parents. We see the struggles one might have as they attempted to leave the East.
Just before 50 minutes in, there is a quick close up of a woman, whose shirt leaves little to the imagination. She is, however, dressed. At 1 hour 25 minutes, a woman is lying topless, but we do not see anything.