Hey,

Sometimes getting reliable information about East German films can be difficult. For example, the DEFA book has nothing on this film. The East German Cinema Blog has a lot of information about the director, the cast, and other important details, and also this statement:

“There is a stereotype in the West about the films from communist countries: That they’re all about the struggles of the working class against oppression; that they’re shot in the style of socialist realism popularized by Russian directors; that they’re full of hokum about the importance of agriculture and tractors . . . [Our Daily Bread] is the perfect example of the communist film, right down to the parade of tractors at the end.”

The gist is a family living in the eastern sector of Germany – this is years before the wall, when people could travel freely within the country – and the various possibilities for them: socialism, capitalism, and crime as manifested in the black market.

Before the “parade of tractors,” there is a crime that occurs that seems to subvert the entire basis of the supposed propaganda. Whether this is a typical reading of the film isn't something I can say with any authority. The film is available on Kanopy.

Directed by Slatan Dudow – who directed 1932's Who Owns The World written by Bertold Brecht – from a script by Dudow, Hans Joachim Beyer, and Ludwig Turek. Cinematography by Robert Baberske and music by Hanns Eisler. Starring Viktotia von Ballsako, Paul Bildt, and Harry Hindemith, among others.