Angels of Iron

A highlight of German-German film history, based on the true story of the youth gang around Werner Gladow at the time of the Berlin Airlift. The debut film by writer Thomas Brasch, who moved from East to West Berlin, was entered in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981 and won the 1981 Bavarian Film Award. During the presentation by Franz Josef Strauß, there is a scandal - because Thomas Brasch thanks the GDR film academy on the big stage. Berlin during the airlift in 1948/49. A city in a state of emergency, where the youth gang around Werner Gladow can rob almost undisturbed at times. Gang leader Gladow knows Gustav Völpel, a former hangman, and uses him to maintain contacts with the police in the eastern part of the city. This provides his gang with information on lucrative stolen goods. The police's jurisdiction ends at the sector border, so the gangsters can easily escape. Werner Gladow (Ulrich Wesselmann) becomes an exceptional figure in Berlin's underworld and plays the gangster boss. His most important partner, Völpel, also benefits greatly – until the Berlin Blockade ends and with it the Gladow gang's almost boundless freedom. Crime boss Gladow is betrayed to the police. In 2013, the film was extensively digitally restored with the help of the FFA.