Virtual Friday Night Films at the Wende: Jana and Jan

This week we are offering our first guest selection, from Mariana Ivanova, the academic director of the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.

Jan, almost 16, tried to escape to the West but ended up landing in Torgau, a secret East German penitentiary. Six months later, he was transferred to a juvenile detention center where he catches the eye of Jana, 17, who bets her girlfriends that she will “make him a man.” A survivor of her stepfather’s abuse, Jana doesn’t believe in love. This coming-of-age tale tackles not only the story of Jana and Jan, who fall for each other in the turbulent year the Berlin Wall opens; along with the couple’s tenderness and fierce argument when Jana decides to have an abortion, we witness the rough culture of the detention center and a girl’s struggle with same-sex desire and suicidal thoughts. Director and scriptwriter Helmut Dziuba was among the few East German filmmakers to screen the taboo topics of teenage pregnancy, child sexual abuse, abortion, and young people in detention centers. In the end, the still pregnant Jana and Jan make it into united Germany, but will that really help them? Jana and Jan was part of WENDE FLICKS: Last Films from East Germany that was organized by the DEFA Film Library and the Wende Museum and premiered at LACMA in 2009.

Watch on Kanopy, free with a library card. Get immediate access to a LAPL e-card or LA County Library Digital Card.

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Virtual Film Picks are inspired by the in-person Friday Night Films at the Wende program series. This selection is part of a curated list of weekly movie suggestions that can be watched at home, in conjunction with #WendeOnline.