The case of Ö.
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The case of Ö. |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rainer Simon |
| script | Rainer Simon Ulrich Plenzdorf (scenario) Peter Jakubeit (dramaturgy) |
| production |
DEFA , KAG “Berlin” Toro-Film GmbH ZDF |
| music | Friedrich Schenker |
| camera | Roland Dressel |
| cut |
Helga Gentz Margrit Brusendorff |
| occupation | |
| |
The case of Ö. is a feature film by Rainer Simon from 1991 based on themes from the story King Oedipus by Franz Fühmann .
action
A company of German soldiers stationed in Greece during the Second World War is making a film based on Sophocles' " Oedipus " with the participation of local actors . In the middle of the war, soldiers are occupied with a work of Greek humanism - but are already aware that the stay, in relation to other fronts, is almost like a vacation. A captain in the German army, a civilian philologist, enthuses his soldiers, who probably have never been confronted with the world of ancient Greece, for the Oedipus drama. A sergeant major rules over him, for whom only the enforcement of military obedience counts. Between these two antipodes stand the German soldiers who are involved in this strange film production and who are nonetheless often followers and collaborators - just as they would be involved in any other company they were hired to do. A naive private, who is supposed to play Oedipus, approaches the Greek myth in a completely impartial way, asks simple questions and is left alone with the not at all easy answers. On the other hand there are three Greek actors who are all too happy to be involved in this film, as this company seems to give them protection and bread at least for some time. The actress of Queen Iokaste turns the young private's head, but goes to bed with the captain. Most of the extras are residents of the surrounding villages. When several of them were shot dead by a patrol of the German Wehrmacht in search of partisans, it gave some food for thought. The cameraman succeeds in filming the dead. During the filming at historical sites, the rest of the company still in the camp is ambushed by partisans. Now the sergeant major seizes the command, immediately takes the Greek actors prisoner and orders the march back. Since mines are suspected on the road, the three Greeks have to run in front of the cars. When they try to escape, they are shot by the Germans. The actress receives the fatal shot from the actor Oedipus. The captain kills himself.
production
The case of Ö. was produced by DEFA-Studio for feature films (Potsdam-Babelsberg) (artistic working group “Berlin”), by Toro-Film GmbH (Berlin) and by the Second German Television (Mainz). Co-producers were the film studios Barrandov (Prague) and Maxkapita International (Athens). The film was shot from April 15 to July 6, 1990 on Eastman Color. Some of the outdoor shots were taken on the original locations in Delphi . The film premiered on April 4, 1991 at the Berlin Kino International . The first broadcast on German television took place on January 26, 1993 on ZDF.
criticism
Michael Hanisch says in the Neue Zeit : “The film was made in the middle of 1990, when it was possible to express what one wanted to say without disguise. But this director is smart enough not to exploit this “free space” cheaply and to use this story to express as much as possible of what he has not been allowed to say so far. ”“ This story is about the essential questions of humanity the guilt of the individual for social developments, the responsibility of the individual for the whole, the value of abstract humanistic ideals at a time when humanism has only an extremely low value. "
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “An endeavor to describe the penetration of an ancient myth into everyday war history, whereby contemporary and mythological levels only interpenetrate superficially; in the attitude delicately educated middle class and with an overly clear educational intention. "
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 162-163 .
Web links
- The case of Ö. in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The case of Ö. at filmportal.de
- The case of Ö. at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ New Times of April 9, 1991
- ↑ The case of Ö. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .