Straßenbekanntschaft (1948)

“Straßenbekanntschaft“ was made in 1947 for the East-German production company DEFA, and it was a work officially commissioned to educate and warn people about the dangers of venereal diseases. But apart from a very brief didactic speech of a doctor near the end (which is the only weak bit of the film), Pewas managed to turn this unpromising commission into a highly personal work about the reality of people, especially women, in a country lying in ruins. The film centres around the young woman Erika, desperately seeking for love and escape from the depression of the times, undecided about her husband returning from the war, drifting, and in the end becoming involved with a circle of rich people who sell goods for sexual favours. Pewas films this in a completely unjudgemental way, creating a dense and dark, but also deeply touching and lyrical portrait of the times with great use of light and shade and masterful direction all around. Like with “Der verzauberte Tag“, Pewas shows an extraordinary sensitivity for