Ralph grows up in pre-war Dresden as the eldest son of a principled and orderly streetcar conductor. With the rise to power of the Nazis, the war, the collapse and the hesitant new beginning, his firmly established middle-class world is also thrown off course. His father is one of the first to be called up to the front. His mother is left alone with the responsibility for Ralph and his younger brother Achim. In the air-raid shelter, during the nights of bombing and later in the daily struggle against misery and hunger, the mother quickly abandons all moral baggage and develops a pragmatic will to survive, for which she admires Ralph. At the same time, the boy is frightened by his mother's desperate claim to happiness because he perceives her affairs as a betrayal of his father, who has gradually faded into a symbol of a happy, carefree childhood.
Monika Woytowicz
as Gerti Donath
Arno Wyzniewski
as
Rene Kalaene
as
Ruth Kommerell
as
Walter Lendrich
as
Susanne Krahnert
as
Carmen-Maja Antoni
as Tante Helli
Sylvester Groth
as Janker
Rolf Hoppe
as Lehrer Kirsche
Erdmute Schmidt-Christian
as Tante Lotte
Hanns-Jörn Weber
as
Michael Christian
as
