Berlin - Auguststrasse
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Berlin - Auguststrasse |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1980 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Günter Jordan |
| script | Günter Jordan |
| production | DEFA studio for documentaries |
| music | Hanns Eisler |
| camera | Michael Albrecht |
| cut | Dieter Koerner |
Berlin - Auguststraße is a documentary film by the DEFA studio for documentaries by Günter Jordan from 1980 .
action
It is 1979 and a film team accompanies the children in a class at the Bertolt Brecht Oberschule in Berlin's Auguststrasse for four months .
An unconventional and young class leader tries to be more of a friend and advisor to his students than just imparting knowledge. He tries to promote their self-confidence, their freedom of expression, their ability to criticize and their self-confidence. The students are very grateful for this and almost without exception give their teacher good grades. When, after the vacation, he increased the demands on the children, including in matters of discipline, they did not always agree.
Petra lives with her single mother and has nine siblings. She is a great help to her mother around the house, at 12 years of age she washes the laundry, often prepares meals and when the mother is on the late shift, she also takes over some of the cleaning of the apartment and goes shopping. At school she is a member of a cabaret group that also performs in companies. There are sometimes problems here because not all children have the same opinion. Petra also sets the conditions to continue to participate in the study group. While filming it is her birthday and it is shown how she spends it with the other children and lists her birthday presents: stationery, a puzzle, books, sweaters, stockings, flowers and sweets. She got 4 Marks from a brother and she got a budgie from her mother, which can take a while because she was sick and there is not enough money for it at the moment. One of her brothers is in the home because he and a friend stole from other people on the street.
Karolina is the chairperson of the Young Artists' Club and is given the task of getting more involved in the preparation of the upcoming school festival on Koppenplatz . Above all, it is about the announcement of the festival under the motto “Niche as there”. But with duplicated leaflets, a large banner over Auguststrasse and many personal conversations, this is also managed, so that she can open the festival on the stage on June 20 in the presence of her mother.
Thomas comes home with his mother and older sister after the holidays. Back in school there were discussions as to whether he should and should be elected to the group council of the pioneer organization Ernst Thälmann in his class, because actually he does not have a correct opinion. In a personal conversation with his class teacher, however, he can be convinced of the correctness and importance of his participation in the group council. The day of the election comes the surprise: Thomas, now with an arm cast, is elected to the group council.
production
Berlin - Auguststrasse was shot as a black and white film under the working title Rotes Halstuch and had its festive premiere on May 18, 1980 in the Pionierpalast Ernst Thälmann in Berlin's Wuhlheide.
The dramaturgy was in the hands of Jutta Diemert.
criticism
The Berliner Zeitung was of the opinion that a slice of life in 1979 is lovingly shown here using means that are reminiscent of the traditions of proletarian film from the late 1920s.
Helmut Ullrich wrote in the NeueZeit that a young team went to one of the oldest residential areas in Berlin and captured life there freshly and directly, for him it was a very worth seeing film.
The Lexicon of International Films states that the film is, at the same time, a description of the milieu of an old East Berlin neighborhood. He impresses with his consistent search for the truth of everyday life, which the director also emphasizes formally, through original scenic sounds and a hand-held camera.
Web links
- Berlin - Auguststrasse in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Berlin - Auguststrasse at filmportal.de
- Berlin - Auguststrasse at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 12, 1980, p. 6
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of March 25, 1980, p. 7
- ↑ Neue Zeit of April 19, 1980, p. 7
- ^ Berlin - Auguststrasse. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .