Directed by Konrad Wolf
Drama Narrative
East Germany Bulgaria | 1959 | 88 min
In German, Bulgarian, Yiddish, and Ladino
with English subtitles
Watch TrailerA classic film from one of Germany’s greatest filmmakers, Stars won The Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959. The film exquisitely tells the story of a Nazi officer who falls in love with a Greek-Sephardi Jewish girl while escorting Jewish prisoners through Bulgaria to a concentration camp.
Konrad Wolf
Konrad Wolf (20 October 1925 – 7 March 1982) was an East German film director.
He and his family left Germany for Moscow when the Nazis took power in 1933, where Wolf came into intense contact with Soviet film. At age 10, he played a minor role in the film Kämpfer, filmed among the German Communist emigrants in Moscow. He and his brother attended the Karl Liebknecht School in Moscow. At age 17 he joined the Red Army and in 1945, he was among the first troops to reach Berlin. He remained in the Soviet Army until 1948. He later described these events in the 1968 film, Ich war neunzehn (I Was Nineteen).
Shortly after the war, Wolf returned to Moscow, where he studied at VGIK. His 1959 film Sterne (German: Stars) won the Special Jury Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. In 1961, his film Professor Mamlock was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Golden Prize. His 1971 film Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize.
He worked afterward as a film director at DEFA. He was the President of the DDR Academy of Arts, Berlin from 1965 until his death in 1982.
In 1978, he was a member of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1980, his film Solo Sunny was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival.