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The Children of Number 67 is a debut feature co-directed by Usch Barthelmess-Weller (born 1940) and Werner Meyer (born 1 948).
The idea for the film came from a favorite children's book of one of the directors and is about kids growing up shortly before and during the period of National Socialism. The film centres on two 1 2-year-old boys, Paul and Erwin, living in a working-class apartment block. The film follows the lives of the residents for a year in 1932-33.
In its story of these changes, the film
attempts to explore the experience of childhood in relation not only to the personal and family circumstances that shape it. but also the wider social and political framework that surrounds it. The solidarity in the gang of children gradually disintegrates as unemployment, political persecution and anti-semitism take their toll.
”We have tried to build up the film in such a way that there is always a story-line which leads the younger audience through the film and lets them participate in the lives of Erwin, Paul and the children from number 67.”
Usch Barthelmess-Weller, Werner Meyer