Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other.

A box-office sensation, this tragicomedy was made during a brief period of relaxed censorship in East Germany. Full of yearning for personal freedom and punctuated by scenes of old buildings blowing up, The Legend of Paul and Paula struck a cord with the public and became a perennial cult favorite.