The Interim

In The Interim, Wolfgang Hilbig's fierce and digressive masterwork, two competing visions of progress loom over two horizons. To the East, the workers in their factories. To the West, capitalism, pleasure, so-called freedom. Somewhere in between, a writer drifts.

An anguished creature of bars, brothels, and train stations, C. is also an acclaimed East German writer. Broken by writer’s block, personal shame, and national guilt, he leaves the monochromatic existence of the GDR for the neon exc...