A Foreign Affair [Eine auswärtige Affäre] [OmU]

USA 1948 | Directed by Billy Wilder | 116 min | English original with German subtitles

Starring Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, and John Lund

Billy Wilder's sharp-edged postwar comedy explores moral complexity in occupied Berlin. A straitlaced American congresswoman arrives to investigate the conduct of the US occupation forces, only to discover moral compromises everywhere. When she discovers that Erika von Schlütow, a nightclub singer and former mistress of a wanted Nazi war criminal, is being protected by a US officer, she demands action—unaware that the officer is Erika's lover.

Marlene Dietrich steals the film as Erika, performing compositions by Friedrich Hollaender: "Black Market," "Illusions," and "The Ruins of Berlin." The collaboration reprises their creative partnership from the 1930s, before both artists left Germany. Though banned by the US military government upon release in 1948, the film's critique of American contradictions finally aired on German television in 1977.

This screening is part of the Berlin plant. Stunde Null exhibition project, conceived by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein in cooperation with Babylon. The accompanying exhibition runs June 6 – August 2, 2026 at n.b.k., Chausseestraße 128-129, with free admission.

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