Between Yesterday and Tomorrow is a quintessential example of a key postwar cycle: the German Trümmerfilm (rubble film), which examines issues such as collective guilt and the prospect of an uncertain future. After living in Swiss exile for ten years, an illustrator returns to Munich, joining old acquaintances in the ruins of his former home, the Hotel Regina. Together they confront the consequences of the war and their own roles in the tragic death of Nelly Dreifuss (Sybille Schmitz). In Harald Braun’s noirish film, past and present freely intersect and interact. Kat, a member of the group played by a stunning Hildegard Knef, represents the generation of young women who seek to take leave of the past and look forward: “We have to carry on living, don’t we? That’s our only option.”