Solo Sunny

This smash hit and huge box office success follows Sunny, a pop singer in a mediocre band, playing in dingy halls before distracted audiences, dreaming of stardom in East Berlin in the 1970s.  

She lives in a sparsely furnished apartment in an ancient, crumbling quarter of East Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, and enjoys a kind of Bohemian freedom: she is a free spirit, who is not afraid to call it like she sees it, and who sleeps with whomever she wants. She longs to be happy and recognized as someone special. Through her ups and downs she discovers that it is more important to stay true to yourself than the system—a message that seems to be in direct conflict with GDR policy, where self-actualization really was a radical act. By the time the authorities decided that the film might actually be subversive, it was too late. It had made it to the West and was entered in the Berlinale 1980.  Renate Krößner (Sunny) won the Silver Baer and the film was honored with the Gold Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival 1980.

Legendary screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase based his script on a true story. This is the last film for East German star director Konrad Wolf.

DEFA Archival Print to Commemorate 25 Years of German Reunification