Three childhood friends each walk down a separate path in life in this standard East German wartime drama by director Frank Beyer about conflicting politics. When the three friends reach adulthood, the two men are diametrically opposed on philosophical and political grounds. One is a Communist who also happens to be in love with the third member of the trio, a young woman who later opts to go for training in Russia. The other is a Nazi. But in spite of their differences, the two men end up in the same German battalion on the Russian front as they risk their lives -- one of them fighting for a cause he opposes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi