The Defector (film)

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Movie
Original title The defector
Country of production Poland , Germany
Publishing year 2020
Rod
Director Florian Gallenberger
script Bernd Lange , Florian Gallenberger
music Antoni Łazarkiewicz
camera Arthur Reinhart
cut Marco Pav D'Auria and Robert Rzesacz
occupation

The defector is a television film directed by Florian Gallenberger after the eponymous novel by Siegfried Lenz , who in two episodes on 8 and 10 April 2020 First aired for the first time.

action

Part 1

In the last summer of the war in July 1944, the young Wehrmacht soldier Walter Proska made his way back to the Eastern Front from his parents' farm against the will of his sister and brother-in-law . On the train, he meets the young Polish woman Wanda and is able to throw an explosive charge she left behind from the train, but shortly afterwards partisans derail the train. Walter is freed from the wreck by a small group of German soldiers who are supposed to secure the railway line in the Rokitno swamps .

The command of this unit is the cynical non-commissioned officer Wilhelm Stehauf, who, despite the threat from the overwhelming number of Polish partisans, ruthlessly harasses not only his subordinates, but also Polish civilians: he makes an accidentally arrested harmless priest run for a pretense and then shoots him from behind .

Walter's renewed encounter with partisan Wanda and his friendship with comrade and regime critic Wolfgang Kürschner make him doubt the correctness of his oath of the oath , but initially he remains true to his principles. In a chance encounter, he was forced to shoot a young partisan fighter. A little later, Stehauf's quarters are taken by the partisans, and Walter learns that it was Wanda's brother he shot. Disappointed, Wanda numbs his ears with pistol shots and lets him go, convinced that he has no chance of survival.

Part 2

Walter is a Russian prisoner of war and is to be killed, but is saved by Wolfgang, who has already defected and vouched for Walter. Walter goes over to the Red Army . Wanda appears as a singer at a party at the commandant's office. After she and Walter have spent the night together, Walter persuades them to flee together, but that fails and they lose sight of each other. Walter later leads his Russian unit on a secret path past his parents' farm, from which German resistance fighters open fire. Walter fires back and shoots his brother-in-law. His sister is taken prisoner.

Leap in time: After Germany surrendered , Walter and Wolfgang started a career in building the socialist state in East Berlin , with Wolfgang, now a staunch socialist, now Walter's superior. They both come under pressure because Walter, who is responsible for issuing permits to the West, does not filter out enough “evil”. Wolfgang continues to protect Walter, but criticizes him sharply for his soft-heartedness.

One day when Wilhelm Stehauf applied for a pass in Walter's office, Walter resisted his first impulse to repay Stehauf for everything he had suffered, and in doing so turned himself against Wolfgang, in whose eyes Stehauf was clearly one of the bad guys who should be locked up. Walter is given the prospect of seeing Wanda again if he gives up on the knife. Then Walter learns from his secretary Hildegard "Hilde" Roth, who is also personally interested in him, that there has been no investigation into Wanda, and frees Stehauf again, but is surprised by Wolfgang, who has Stehauf shot without further ado. Hilde persuades Walter to flee with her to the West, as he is now also a declared enemy of the system. The escape succeeds barely.

The last scene takes place in May 1956. Hilde and Walter live in Hamburg and have two children. Wanda suddenly appears in a TV music program on the NDR , whereupon Walter leaves the house as if dazed and Hilde remains disturbed.

production

The film was shot in Poland and Germany from June 5, 2019 to August 31, 2019.

reception

Reviews

“Screenwriter Bernd Lange and director Florian Gallenberger are smart enough to stay very close to their protagonist. They don't depict the Nazi regime against Soviet rule in a relativistic way, but rather depict their protagonist's outrage towards one and the other from the perspective of their protagonist. But precisely in the rigor with which the filmmakers Walter, the notorious defector, the speedster between the systems, keeping closely on the heels, they bring to the point the lack of housing of the young war years. "

- Christian Buß : The mirror

Audience ratings

The first broadcast of the first double episode of Der Überläufer on April 8, 2020 was seen by 4.68 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 13.9% for Das Erste .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The defector at crew united
  2. ↑ Christian Buß: Siegfried Lenz film adaptation. "Apocalypse Now" on the Eastern Front. In: Culture. Der Spiegel, April 2, 2020, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Sidney Schering: Prime Time check: Wednesday, 8 April 2020. Quotenmeter.de , April 9, 2020 accessed on 10 April 2020 .