Das zweite Gleis (1962) User Reviews

Another good film from the GDR

[tony-70-667920 · 8/10 · 3 June 2021]

The GDR (German Democratic Republic) may have been a laughably-named police state, but there's no doubt that DEFA had some first-rate film-makers (Kurt Maetzig, Konrad Wolf, Frank Beyer etc.) and produced some fine work.

"The Second Track" is, like Andrzej Munk's "Man on the Track", an intriguing mystery set among railway workers, but very different. Walter Brock sees two colleagues stealing from a train, and reports that he can identify one. That's Erwin Runge, but when faced with Runge in a line-up Brock says he was mistaken. Runge then incites the other thief, young Frank, to get close to Brock's daughter, and the young couple start digging, with Vera finding out her real surname is Merkel (Angela Merkel grew up in the GDR.) The film progresses to tragedy and an ambiguous ending. One can't help wondering why, since both Brock/Merkel and Runge behaved shamefully in WW2, they didn't both just keep very quiet. The cynical answer, I suppose, is that then there would have been no film. Despite this basic flaw "The Second Track" is a satisfying film, devoid of Communist propaganda, and makes me want to see Kunert's best-known film "The Adventures of Werner Holt."

BTW, Annkathrin Burger, who played Vera, is still alive. Fortunately the GDR isn't.

Sublime East German Noir

[gudrunh-794-69037 · 10/10 · 20 July 2010]

Night-time in the switching yard, and Walter Brock, the affable railway official stumbles across two employees helping themselves to some freight. It's dark, but he's sure he could identify one of them, and as they flee, he orders an immediate lock-down of the area. Hordes of railway police descend (literally), and an impromptu line-up is arranged.

Yes, I think that's him!

But as they stare at each other, there is a sudden flash of some other recognition on Brock's part, and a questioning, searching why do I also know you from the offender.

No, sorry, says Brock. I don't think it's him after all. I was mistaken. And from here it's a tightly scripted visual and thematic feast which unlocks a secret hidden from Brock's daughter, about her past and the fate of her mother. This secret entraps one man and frees another. The yard-gates close on some and they open for others.

Why Brock's sudden determination to leave a fine and indispensable position with the railways, to begin some new life with his daughter in Rostock? Why the insatiable desire of Erwin Runge, the original suspect, to recall the face of his accuser?

Your name isn't Brock, it's Merkel.

My mother was killed in the bombing of Küstrin.

But Küstrin was never bombed.

The Blockleiter.

This is a movie of awkward angles, skewed light, shadow and steam, industrial grey and close ups. Dirty and deserted landscapes. Like the railway? You're in for a treat. Perfect Noir.

This is possibly the best of that small but essential cluster of East German movies which tackles the legacy of a Nazi past, and which includes The Murderers Are Among Us and Rotation.

Such a taut movie! Such a twist! Look too at the photography of O. Winston Link to get some idea of the visuals in store for you. A classic of the genre; an obscure cinematic treasure!

Taut and tense DeFa film

[fabianotto · 10/10 · 9 July 2021]

Set in a still young post-war GDR, "Das Zweite Gleis" tells the story of a single father raising his only daughter and how they get by until the father's past catches up to them and sets a painstaking search for truth in motion. Far ahead of its time, the film tells how haunting the truth for most Germans must have been after WWII and that it might have been even more haunting for their children to uncover what their parents desperately tried to forget or to cover up. Story telling and craftsmanship at their highest!