1982: East German actor Erwin Gregorek travels to Hamburg to shoot screen tests for a film about the sinking of the ocean-liner Cap Arcona in 1945 - a catastrophe he himself survived as a concentration camp prisoner.
Acting
Geschonneck's raw, lived-in performance blurs actor and survivor
Direction
Bellag's clinical framing makes horror feel bureaucratic
Writing
Script collapses 1945 and 1982 until time itself drowns
Director
Lothar Bellag
Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Gregorek
Vít Olmer
Harry Bazulis
Jana Břežková
Irene Syring
Roman Kaminski
Toni Eisert
Wilhelm Koch-Hooge
Kunzig
Barbara Schnitzler
Nina Schiefel
Klaus Manchen
Richard Schiefel
Gert Gütschow
Richter
Manfred Zetzsche
Ehlers
Carl-Hermann Risse
Lawyer
Joachim Siebenschuh
Václav Voska
Klaus Gehrke
Lutz Riemann
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Erwin Geschonneck actually survived Cap Arcona; director Bellag discovered this during casting and rebuilt the entire film around his real experience.
The DEFA studio's most devastating production — banned from West German screens for years because it implicated British forces in the prisoner deaths.
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