Your Unknown Brother

1935, Nazi Germany. After being released from a camp for political prisoners, Arnold Clasen returns to Hamburg to lead a quiet life. He contacts Renate, with whom he is still in love. And, although he is aware of the danger of doing so, he begins a friendship with Walter, who is active in the resistance. But as old comrades are arrested one after another, Arnold begins to suspect that Walter, who remains unscathed, has betrayed them.

This landmark film exploring the role of the individual in confronting anti-fascism was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Ironically (and tellingly) it was withdrawn by the East German authorities, who from that point undermined the artistic activities of Ulrich Weiss, an independent, untamable and unpredictable talent.

Based on the novel by Willi Bredel.

What the Critics are Saying

"A milestone." - Museum of Modern Art

"Uses a keen sense of psychological drama to investigate the intrigue, betrayal and paranoia of the underground resistance movement to National Socialism in 1930s Hamburg." - Leeds International Film Festival

"Director Ulrich Weiss was the greatest talent to emerge from the Babelsberg film school in the 1970s." - The Oxford History of World Cinema

Read That Was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the "New" Germany by Leonie Naughton