The Stranger (1961)

Movie
Original title	The stranger
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1961
length	80 minutes
Rod
Director	Johannes Arpe
script	Herbert Jobst , Egon Günther Lea Grosse (dramaturgy)
production	Adolf Fischer DEFA , KAG "Solidarity"
music	Wilhelm Neef
camera	Walter Fehdmer
cut	Charlotte Peschlow
occupation
Günther Grabbert : Willi Palko Harry Hindemith : Wilhelm Schepp Günther Simon : Party Secretary Reichert Helga Göring : Hanna Rudolf Ulrich : Julius Fritz Schlegel : Aurich Rudolf Donath : Franz Johannes Arpe : Plant Manager Pfefferkorn Peter Harzheim : BGL chairman Erich Brauer : Schachtmeister Brandt Norbert Flohr : Thomas Horst Lommatzsch : Innkeeper Joachim Tomaschewsky : Security Inspector Antje Arpe : waitress Loni Gertrud Brendler : Older woman Fred Delmare : Electric Engine Driver Hans-Joachim Hegewald : Detective officer Christoph Beyertt : truck driver Werner Dissel : Workers Werner Senftleben : Workers Lore Frisch : Erika Frithjof Ruede : Older buddy Franz Berres : sidecar driver Martin Knöpfel : Old chess master Ditha Cullmann : Mrs. Reichert Walter Lendrich : Dispatcher Bärbel Ola : Kindergarten teacher Annemarie Brodhagen : Younger woman Erhard Krasselt : signalman Horst Brockmann : Young buddy Walpurgis Brückner : Young woman Paul Müller : Old porter Theo Scheibler : 2nd excavator operator Heinz Gothe : buddy Heinz Dhein : buddy Erich Fritze : buddy Erhard Bittner : buddy

Der Fremde is a DEFA German feature film directed by Johannes Arpe in 1961 .

action

The unskilled Willi Palko wandered the country for several years and got by with odd jobs. Now he wants to take on a “real” job and settle down. He settled in a small village and applied for work in an open-cast brown coal mine. Although unskilled, he is allowed to start as a greaser in the Schepp Brigade. It is considered the only brigade that always works above the norm. In reality, Schachtmeister Brandt regularly falsifies the balance sheets. Willi is initially seen by the members of the brigade as a spy who is supposed to get to the bottom of the comparatively high workforce. Additional resentment arises because Julius is released from the brigade for Willi. It is considered uncontrolled. Schachtmeister Brandt has Julius secretly distribute leaflets in the company calling for less work. When Hanna also sees Julius manipulating Willi's grease with sand, she reports Julius to the plant management. Julius and Brandt as western agents are arrested.

Wilhelm Schepp, who was forced to give the wrong numbers, is also taken away by the police. At the suggestion of party secretary Reichert, the Schepp Brigade decides to put in a high-performance shift and work out one move more than required. Brigadier Schepp does not appear and so Willi sits down in the digger house. He had previously been instructed by Wilhelm in the operation of the excavator because Wilhelm wanted to place his trust in him - Reichert had previously explained to Wilhelm that Willi is not a spy and did not deserve the brigade's mistrust. The customer of the high-performance shift makes the rounds and Reichert finally supports Willi in the excavator house. Although he is not enthusiastic about the brigade's violation of the rules, since Willi has not received any training on the large excavator, he hopes that the action by the Schepp brigade will also have a signal effect on the other brigades.

After the shift is over, Willi goes to the inn and meets Wilhelm there. He was allowed to leave the police station and now believes that he will be replaced as a brigadier or that his brigade has already completed the high-performance shift under a new brigadier. Willi tells him that no one has even thought of it and Wilhelm is relieved. However, Willi has to answer to the management for his unauthorized operation of the excavator. He thinks he's going to be fired. In the end, however, the company gives him a place to study at a mining school so that he can later return to open-cast lignite mining as a full-fledged worker.

production

The Stranger was filmed from 1959 to 1960, but initially not released. It was not until March 3, 1961 that the film went straight to cinemas without a premiere. After a short time it was taken off the program again. "The reason was obviously not necessarily the unsatisfactory quality, but the negative markings of some of the 'representatives of the working class'."

The film constructions come from Oskar Pietsch .

criticism

The contemporary criticism criticized the lack of psychological motivation of the characters. In the film, instead, "photographed dialogues [...] that literally stand still."

For the film-dienst , Der Fremde was a "schematic, artistically far below average contemporary film, which tends to work its way around pseudo-conflicts and leads purposefully to a harmonious finale."

literature

• F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 184-185 .

Web links

• The stranger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The stranger at filmportal.de
• The stranger at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 185 .
2. ↑ Christoph Funke in: Tomorrow , March 4, 1961.
3. ↑ The stranger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .