Description:

An animated biography of the early life of Friedrich Engels, who would later co-develop the theory of Marxism together with Karl Marx, told through his own letters and drawings.

The animated film begins with the story of how in 1838 the son of a rich manufacturer Friedrich Engels from went from Barmen to Bremen, where he had to complete his commercial education in the trading house of Consul Leupold.

In Bremen, Engels began his correspondence with his sister Maria and his school friends Wilhelm and Friedrich Greber. The young man was bored with accounting notebooks, and he finds an outlet in letters. A brilliant essayist and talented cartoonist, young Engels vividly describes his activities in the office, fantasizes about how his letters go by mail. To Sister Maria he describes (and draws) Bremen, the features of its architecture. He also reports on various events taking place in the city. Sheets of paper are filled one by one with caricatures of colleagues.

The letters trace the whole years of Engels' life, service in the army, writing articles, relationships with editors, speaking out against the philosopher Schelling. The formation of Engels' political and religious views can be traced back to 1842, when he went to Manchester. And in 1844 he sent his first letter to Karl Marx.

Originally, this was released in both Russian and German, with V. Tatarskiy being the narrator in Russian and M. Wagner in German.

The German title was Ein junger Mann namens Engels - Ein Porträt in Briefen. The first video above is the Russian version of the film (but with German opening titles), while the second video is the German version.

Awards:
1970 - XIII International Film Festival in Leipzig - Golden Dove Award
1971 - XVII International Film Festival in Oberhausen (Germany) - Award of the International Jury of People's Universities
1971 - State Prize of the GDR