Film without a Name

It is shortly after the end of the Second World War and a small group of people – director, screenwriter, actors – are discussing the form and subject of a proposed film project. Two acquaintances of the screenwriter, a country girl and a Berlin art dealer, enter the scene and suggest that the crew make a film based on their lives. Martin, the art dealer, offers his business partner and her maid Christine a place to stay after the house they live in is bombed. From the very beginning, he feels drawn to the simple country girl, and the two become close during a night-time bomb raid. However, their love is doomed by the class prejudice rampant in the circles in which Martin moves, and Christine eventually leaves. After the war, the situation is reversed: Martin returns from the front, with nothing but the clothes on his back and appears at Christine′s father′s farm in need of a roof over his head. This time, it is the farm girl who turns Martin away out of pride, and it is Martin who leaves the home of his old love.

The members of the group disagree on how the film should go on from there. The director wants it to end on a tragic, moralizing note, while the actor wants a happy end. Finally, the writer asks Martin and Christine themselves how the story continued.