Die Windrose was a film made for the East German production company DEFA in 1957 and commissioned by the World Federation of Women. Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.-Early life:Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a...

 was film director, with artistic input from Joris Ivens

Joris Ivens

Joris Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist.-Early life and career:...

. Simone Signoret

Simone Signoret

Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...

, Yves Montand

Yves Montand

-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...

 and Helene Weigel

Helene Weigel

Helene Weigel was a distinguished German actress. She was the second wife of Bertolt Brecht, and together they had a son Stefan Brecht and daughter Barbara Brecht-Schall .The daughter of a Jewish lawyer, she became a Communist Party member from 1930 and Artistic Director of the...

, wife of German dramatist Bertold Brecht, collaborated in the making of this film, a docu-drama about the struggle of female workers in Italy, Brazil, the Soviet Union, China and France.