BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: Goethe Institut selects, round four.

DESPITE East Germany being in its death-throes, the state was still producing films after the wall came down. The Architects is clearly reflective of the growing liberalisation in late 80s East German society, and the film is none too subtle in its critique of authority and conformity. It ultimately looks at how much an individual has to compromise him or herself in order to fit in, concluding in a rather hard-edged pessimistic manner.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: Goethe Institut selects, round three.

THE FILM SOCIETY’s East German rendezvous continues with Her Third, a rom-com socialist style, which pleads for women’s rights in its own particular way. Following the travails of an ex-nun-solo-mother-potential-lesbian, with two children from two different relationships as she searches for Mr Right (who happens to work in the chemical factory with her), Her Third gently asks for equal rights in relationships. While it has certainly dated, and seems like a curious slice of 70s socialism, some of its concerns about female bonding and relationship behaviour still resonate. And even if the whole film is occasionally rather silly, it shows that despite the barriers of the Cold War, women and men the world-over have to go to great lengths for something that evolution had initially made so simple.