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In 1966, it didn’t take much for the East German government to ban a film with possible existential themes, particularly if the film was a comment on the Nazis’ confiscation of art in the years leading up to World War II. Director Ralf Kirsten’s drama The Lost Angel, a chronicle of an artist whose memorial for World War I veterans was removed by Nazis in 1937, was finally released in a drastically shortened version in 1971. The film follows Ernst Barlach, a sculptor and author living in obscurity who’s prompted to reflect on his internal conflict when his work gets taken down. Now, the Goethe-Institut is screening The Lost Angel to mark the Great War’s centennial, paired with an introduction by art historian Marion Deshmukh, who will place the film and its featured art in their cultural context. Unsurprisingly, the film’s not as meaningless or without focus as the East Germans once suggested. The film shows at 6:30 p.m. at Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 7th St. NW. $4–$7. (202) 289-1200. goethe.de/washington.