Mother

Bertolt Brecht's grand epic of political theater, an 1931 adaptation of Maxim Gorky's novel Mother, is seen here in the production staged by Brecht's own Berliner Ensemble. Denounced by Stalinist critics as "formalist," the play was hugely popular with the public. Starring Brecht's greatest interpreter, Helene Weigel, in the title role. (147 mins., 16mm) Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany is based on a series presented by The Museum of Modern Art and the Goethe-Institut New York, in collaboration with the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.