"Sieben Sommersprossen" or "Seven Freckles" is an East German German-language film from 1978, so it will soon have its 40th anniversary. The writers are Christa Kozik and Gabriele Herzog and I have to admit that i am not familiar with any of these two. But director Hermann Zschoche is among the most known and most successful filmmakers from the GDR and this 75-minute film we have here is not his only work that is still somewhat known today. Zschoche himself is in his 80s today, but is retired and has not made any new films for almost 20 years. Judging from the quality we have here, I cannot say I am too sad about that. It's a bit sad as this film had the potential to be a sweet and cute coming-of-age story I believe, but the script is just too weak to really stay memorable and the acting is only slightly better. The girl with the freckles, described in the title, is cute enough to get me interested, but the way the plot kept evolving really did not work at all, which is why I lost interest quickly. The film tries to be very natural, to depict normal teenage life (in the GDR or anywhere else) in the 1970s (maybe today too) and how a couple girls and boys are at summer camp and attraction develops between some of them. So far so good. The problem is that, very much against this realistic idea, the film has more than just a few couple of scenes and moments when it did not feel realistic or authentic at all and in my opinion this was pretty close to destroying the whole idea/project unfortunately. This is why I give this movie a thumbs-down. Not recommended and I am glad it was that short.

The film starts and ends in a teen holiday-camp. As the plot develops, it becomes most obvious that there would must be a romantic relationship between two heterosexual teens - Karoline Hinze (Kareen Schroter) and Robert (Harald Rathmann) . And such relationship must have some limitations and secrecy without question. Secret dating takes place in a secret place. Result - first sex, sacrificing of virginity. Contains Nudity? Yes, full frontal teenage nudity, nude swimming, nude kissing - everything but the "real sex" can be seen for about 5-8 minutes. A humorous sequence occurs when two little kids stole the clothes of the naked couple while they were relaxing beside the lake. The kids throw the clothes in the water that carried away the clothes leaving no chance to get them. Although, the kids later provide some peculiar clothes that the couple used to cover their bodies and return the camp.This review is not intended to allure people who enjoy the coming of age teenage nudity. Only nudity should not be taken into account to credit the director as well as the various characters. The main two characters played well. Other consequences of the film, what can be expected to be included in a holiday camp, like the staged play of Romeo and Juliet, are beautifully presented. All the characters including adult and child actors have shown their ability to act naturally. To me this film is not in any way overrated. It is of course a beautiful combination/mixture of comedy, drama and romance which is of nice texture and tastes and digests well. Anyway, the plot may be predicted to some, if not many, as a well acted film, Sieben Sommersprossen is worthwhile to watch.Recently, I've watched the Blu-ray release of this East German classic. Audio visual quality is perfect for a high resolution 1080p Blu-ray at the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. "Seven Freckles" is the Blu-ray title and you can order one from Amazon.com at €13.99.

This movie is pretty much as you'd expect. A bunch of teens in camp do a play about Romeo and Juliet, but off-stage a romance takes place. It's neither badly done, nor particularly interesting or different. The high rating is a bit misleading and undeserved, as despite being a dated film, offers nothing notable for now or for then, either plot-wise or from a cinematic point of view.It only runs 15 minutes longer than an hour, but as there are many scenes that bridge the main plot it feels a lot longer than it actually is.I can't say it is worthwhile seeking out this movie, it is well enough acted, but comes across as a "made for TV" film that doesn't develop the characters well and doesn't excite the viewer into wanting to find out what happens next, as it is all so very predictable.