Wet Asphalt (1958)

I just watched this movie (in dubbed English.) It has Horst Buchholz - who was known as the German James Dean. It was made 13 years after World War 2 ended and yet shows how the war still affected the Germans. By the late 1950s there were still thousands upon thousands of German POWs and forced laborers in the Soviet Union. This was a sore spot in West German/USSR relations (although the East Germans didn't seem to care what their Communist friends were doing.)In 1955 alone, 15,000 Germans were released from the USSR and allowed to return to either East or West Germany.
It also has the theme of the older generation knowing what is best over the younger generation. The movie used the example of an old newspaper guy vs a young newspaper guy, but it could fit in any context.
It also shows how the Cold War was evolving and the distrust between the two sides. Throughout the movie the saying "The Poles aren't talking" was used to sum up the lack of evidence. While I know that the countries behind the Iron Curtain often refused to address rumors to the West (and almost never to their own people) it seems odd to me today to have people just willingly accept governments not answering questions.
One scene that really stuck with me is at the German Red Cross when an old woman was asking the official about her son and she was told to wait her turn and the old woman apologized as though she had done something wrong. It shows the German characteristic of accepting any sort of authority without real question. I have personally seen that characteristic (both when I lived in Germany and when I go there as a tourist.)
Overall, the film brought up basic moral questions of doing what is right or doing what one knows is completely wrong. Even though the film was made in West Germany in the 1950s and is in black-and-white I think the questions it raises are still valid today.