The Seal of God (film)

Movie
Original title	The seal of God
Country of production	Austria
original language	German
Publishing year	1949
length	87 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Alfred Stöger
script	Alexander Lix
production	Wiener Mundus-Film, Vienna (Alfred Stöger, Walter Tjaden )
music	Franz Salmhofer
camera	Josef Ketterer
cut	Hermione Diethelm
occupation
Hilde Mikulicz : Andrea Josef Meinrad : Father Clemens Robert Lindner : Stefan von Mansfeld Elisabeth Markus : Anunziata Hugo Gottschlich : Haberer Alexander Trojan : Michael Elfriede Ott : Gusti Carl Günther : Emmerich Passegger Alfred Neugebauer : Johann Oskar Hugelmann : Jatschi Török Susanne Engelhart : Theres Ludmilla Hell : Mrs. Drusewitsch Josefine Kramer-Glöckner : Kathi Gandolf Buschbeck : Father Lucius Hanns Kurth : Gendarme Steinbichler

Das Siegel Gottes (alternative title: Schuld und Sühne ) is an Austrian homeland film from 1949 and is based on the novel of the same name by Peter Rosegger .

action

The film is one of the first of the post-war period to focus on the secret of confession as its content. The Cistercian priest Clemens, pastor in a rural community, is confronted with a crime in confession . A perjurer eases his conscience before he dies. Years before this, the game warden at the landowner Stefan von Mansfeld, had made a major contribution to Michael Lambach, the manager of the equally wealthy neighbor Passegger, being imprisoned innocently. This enabled Stefan to get rid of his competitor in an inglorious way. Because Andrea Passegger, daughter of the neighbors, wanted to marry Michael and had little interest in Stefan, who pressured her very much. Due to the intrigue of Stefan and his perjured game warden, the wedding did not take place, not for the time being. And Father Clemens was confronted with the burden of the secrecy of confession, with the burden of the silence that it entailed. In spite of everything, he remained true to the secret of confession, the “seal of God”, and luckily it came to a happy ending.

Production background

The plot of the film uses motifs from the novel Das Siegel Gottes by Peter Rosegger. Even in the run-up to production, there were disagreements between Rosegger's heirs and those responsible for the production company. The heirs feared too great a falsification of Rosegger's poetry and appealed against the submitted script. Only when it became clear that the film was based solely on motifs from the novella did they approve the production.

The film was made in the Atelier Wien-Schönbrunn with exterior shots from Carinthia, especially from Sankt Veit an der Glan .

Awards

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia gave the film the title " artistically superior" .

Web links

• The seal of God in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Objection by Rosegger's heirs to the original script
2. ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 78