This film is chock full of clips from 1920s and ’30s cabaret, musicals, hit songs, and scenes from popular films, all of which are oozing with joie de vivre. “In the Shadows of Dreams” documents and celebrates the lives and work of composer Michael Jary and songwriter Bruno Balz. The pair helped shape Germany’s popular culture over five decades, composing the music and songs for some 250 films including some of the biggest hits for Europe’s most successful singers.

They continued working in Germany with the blessing of the government even during the Nazi years. Balz, who was gay, was persecuted and spared from being sent to a concentration camp thanks to Jary, who made it clear to Goebbels’ propaganda ministry that he wouldn’t be able to complete a soundtrack for one of their films without his partner. The film doesn’t overlook this period but shows how the two tried to create a subversive, optimistic, and different voice from that of the government’s propaganda. It tells the fascinating, complex story of their lives and the enormous influence they had on popular culture in German-speaking countries even after the war.