Your unknown brother
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Your unknown brother |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1982 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ulrich White |
| script | Wolfgang Trampe |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Red Circle" |
| music | Peter Rabenalt |
| camera | Claus Neumann |
| cut | Ursula Rudzki |
| occupation | |
| |
| synchronization | |
| |
Your unknown brother is a German literary film adaptation of DEFA by Ulrich Weiß from 1982. It is based on the novel of the same name by Willi Bredel .
action
Hamburg in 1935: the anti-fascist Arnold Clasen has just been released from the concentration camp. He earns his living as a projectionist and otherwise lives completely withdrawn. He suspects that he is under special observation and is astonished when instead of his usual confidante Stefan, Walter, whom he does not know, suddenly appears as a liaison man.
The actions of the anti-fascists are always nipped in the bud. When a Nazi man appears in a factory and the workers are supposed to direct their complaints to him, one of them actually dares and is arrested. A leaflet campaign in the same company is reported and investigated before the start of the shift, just as a red flag was hoisted on the company roof and this incident is also known to the authorities.
When anti-fascists from Walter's group are arrested more and more often, he goes to the head of the group Stefan and expresses the suspicion that Walter could be a mole . Arnold had seen Walter some time ago while workers were being arrested in the harbor and although he was caught by several police officers, he managed to escape. Stefan, however, refers to Walter's long-term proletarian sentiment, which made a defection to the Nazis virtually impossible. In reality, however, Walter is a Nazi spy and betrays Arnold to his contacts, even if he is no longer mentally able to continue his task as a spy. Arnold is arrested. Walter, on the other hand, is taken to a remote fisherman's hut by the comrades, where he is placed as a spy for the enemy. After initially denying it, Walter admits to the news of Arnold's arrest that he was a spy. He is left alone in the wasteland.
production
Your unknown brother is based on the novel Your unknown brother by Willi Bredel, but some aspects have been changed. If in the book of the traitor a Nazi smuggled into the resistance group, in the film the traitor is a man from his own ranks, which brought criticism to the film. If the Nazi is shot in the end, the perpetrator had to stay alive at the behest of the Culture Department of the Central Committee of the SED.
The film premiered on May 13, 1982 in Berlin's Colosseum and was released in GDR cinemas the next day. It then ran at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival in Saarbrücken , where it was nominated for the Cannes International Film Festival . This was announced among other things in New Germany ; in addition, they were already working on a subtitled version of the film. Hermann Axen , who was a member of the Politburo at the time, however, rejected the film on the grounds that “we were not like that”, whereupon the entry for Cannes was canceled. The film was banned from export and after a short time it was also taken out of the cinemas.
The film shows scenes from the feature films Regine (director: Erich Waschneck ) and Triumph des Willens (director: Leni Riefenstahl ).
criticism
The contemporary criticism said that “Ulrich Weiß […] made a film about life under fascism, which is not a repetition of earlier thematic attempts in our cinematography. Another individual approach is being sought, questions of a generation are breaking out that have not experienced German fascism themselves. ”Criticism of the film came from former communist resistance fighters who criticized the film as a traitor in their own ranks:“ We have for fought our communist ideals under the most difficult conditions, convinced of the certainty that victory will be ours. In short: despite the good will of the artists to master the material, whereby they put in a lot of effort - the basic tenor of the film cannot be satisfactory. "
For the lexicon of international films , your unknown brother was a "[p] sychological drama that reveals a great sense of style and a willingness to experiment and relies on the effect of his intense, sometimes highly exaggerated images."
Cinema called the film "psychologically sophisticated."
Awards
At the 2nd National Feature Film Festival of the GDR in Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1982, your unknown brother received recognition for director, camera and scenography - specially introduced special categories, as the film was not allowed to be awarded as the best film on official instructions.
In 2005, Your Unknown Brother was shown as part of the DEFA retrospective Rebels with a Cause at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City .
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 108-109 .
Web links
- Your Unknown Brother in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Your unknown brother at filmportal.de
- Your unknown brother at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ralf Schenk (ed.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (ed.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 286.
- ↑ Your unknown brother ( Memento from November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Fred Gehler: What can a person endure? . In: Film und Fernsehen , No. 8, 1982, pp. 14-15.
- ↑ HH: The anti-fascist resistance fighter , No. 6, 1982.
- ↑ Your unknown brother. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 1, 2018 .
- ↑ See cinema.de