Brennendes Herz plot
Film adaptation of the autobiographical novel 'Der Ohr des Malchus' by Gustav Regler. In 1914, Regler (Griem) volunteered as a young man on the French front, where all the horrors of the First World War started his spiritual awakening. Regler grows into a critical author and begins a lifelong struggle against any form of oppression. He also ends up in Spain, where he fights with the leftist international brigade against Franco's troops supported by Hitler. There he befriends André Malraux, Ernest Hemingway, the Dutch documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens and other famous contemporaries. When he subsequently gets an impression of Stalin's reign of terror, he rejects communism and leaves first for Mexico. Regler has been forced to live in exile for years because of his leftist past.