Spring, wenn du kannst

A duck has hatched her brood in the gutter of a house in the town. There is a lake near. But how can the ducklings get down from the nest onto the ground? This film shows how they manage it.

"In short sequences of images pointedly set to music by Louis Armstrong, the film follows the pleasurable triumph of young life over the obstacles of setting out into the world. As short as the film is and as curious its contents, the chequered story of its working and release titles is just as interesting. In 1987, the industry magazine Film und Fernsehen presented it simply as “A DEFA film by”. The text printed there ends with a sentence in brackets: (And many a viewer may marvel at the courage of the little ducklings and feel encouraged themselves.)"
(Philip Zengel)