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Denk bloß nicht, ich heule

Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry
Retrospective 2024
© DEFA-Stiftung / Jörg Erkens
After the avowed rowdy Peter Naumann writes in a school essay that he doesn’t need East Germany, the 17-year-old is expelled as a “reactionary element”. At the urging of the daughter of the school’s principal, and with the help of a classmate, he plans to study for the school-leaving exams on his own. But the principal is not going to let that happen. When Peter tries to take revenge on him, and teams up with hooligan chums, he ends up discrediting his own noble aspirations quite painfully… An old communist who values his own life above the party; nostalgic memories of debauchery in Hamburg’s red-light district; blue jeans and beat music frowned upon by the state; echoes of the Nazi past in Weimar, the home of classicism – the list of defiant content goes on and on. So Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry was the most objectionable of the 12 films that the 11th plenum of the central committee of East Germany’s SED party banned in 1965. Despite compulsory re-edits and the director’s self-criticism, this stark depiction of generational conflict was not released. The re-constructed version was not shown until 1990.
by Frank Vogel
with Peter Reusse, Anne-Kathrein Kretzschmar, Hans Hardt-Hardtloff, Jutta Hoffmann, Helga Göring, Harry Hindemith, Herbert Köfer, Fred Delmare German Democratic Republic 1965 /1990 German 91’ Black/White Rating R 12

With

  • Peter Reusse
  • Anne-Kathrein Kretzschmar
  • Hans Hardt-Hardtloff
  • Jutta Hoffmann
  • Helga Göring
  • Harry Hindemith
  • Herbert Köfer
  • Fred Delmare

Crew

Director Frank Vogel
Screenplay Jochen Nestler, Manfred Freitag
Cinematography Günter Ost
Editing Helga Krause
Music Hans-Dieter Hosalla
Sound Konrad Walle
Production Design Harald Horn, Sigrid Weidhaas, Alfred Thomalla
Costumes Dorit Gründel

Additional information

DCP: DEFA Film Distribution in the Deutsche Kinemathek