Abschied von Gestern – Anita G [Yesterday Girl] **** (1966, Alexandra Kluge, Günther Mack, and Hans Korte) – Classic Movie Review 13,894

Alexander Kluge’s film 1966 film Yesterday Girl stars his sister Alexandra Kluge as a young East German migrant to West Germany who struggles to adjust to her new life.

Writer/ director Alexander Kluge’s film 1966 film Abschied von Gestern – Anita G [Yesterday Girl] stars Alexandra Kluge, Günther Mack, and Hans Korte. Kluge helped to pioneer a new wave of German Cinema with the cinematic language he created here with this significant, influential, game-changing film.

Important 60s West German director Alexander Kluge’s début feature film (after four shorts) is based on the true story of a young East German woman, Anita G (played by Alexandra Kluge, the director’s sister) who, full of hope, flees to the West to find a society that is just as reactionary and depressing.

Yesterday Girl is a lively, creative, thought-provoking New German Cinema film that in 1966 was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival (shared with Chappaqua) for its fascinating treatment of difficult, challenging subject matter within a very 60s experimental film form that includes a jarring editing style, discontinuous sound and a non-sequential narrative.

It also won the Film Award in Gold for Outstanding Feature Film (Bester Spielfilm) at the German Film Awards in 1967.

Kluge’s next film, Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed, went on to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well as the Film Award in Gold for Outstanding Feature Film.

Alexander Kluge (14 February 1932 – 25 March 2026) 

Alexandra Kluge (2 April 1937 – 11 June 2017)

Cast: Alexandra Kluge, Günther Mack, Hans Korte, Eva Marie Meinecke, Hans Brammer, Ursula Dirichs, Käthe Ebner, Alfred Edel, Palma Falck, E O Fuhrmann, Josef Kreindl, Werner Kreindl, Edith Kuntze-Pellogio, Peter Staimmer.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,894

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