Konrad Wolf's 1980 East German film Solo Sunny preserves the sadness, tattiness, and poisoned idealism of the GDR like a time capsule. The heroine, aspiring solo pop singer Sunny, is told by her MC that she is no Liza Minnelli, evoking comparisons to Bob Fosse's Cabaret.
Plot and Characters
Ingrid "Sunny" Sommer, played by Renate Krößner, is a former factory worker touring the GDR with a cheesy gang show that plays clubs and community centres. The show is headed by a tired sub-jazz-funk band called the Tornadoes, featuring guest singers, an acrobat act, and a ghastly MC-comedian. Sunny falls for Ralph (Alexander Lang), the stand-in sax player and brooding intellectual. Ralph writes English lyrics for a James Bond-style torch song Sunny composed. Their brief relationship inspires Sunny to pursue a solo career, breaking free from the grotesque losers and slobbish band members who harass her.
Themes and Context
Wolf, a state-sanctioned artist admired at the Berlin film festival, had a brother who was a high-ranking Stasi official, making him the second most politically compromised German filmmaker in history. The film questions whether Sunny's pursuit of glamour rejects GDR collectivist ideals for capitalist allure, though never explicitly. Poignant ambition fills every frame. "Do you think a non-celebrity can have personality?" Sunny asks sadly. "It's worth aspiring to…" replies a band member. The film's shots of gaunt tenements, uncool denims, and boxy Trabants on Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg streets evoke deep melancholy.
Solo Sunny is available on Mubi from 1 August.
