The Whitsun excursion

Movie
Original title	The Whitsun excursion
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1978
length	90 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Michael Günther
script	Michael Günther
production	Ottokar Runze
music	Hans-Martin Majewski
camera	Michael Epp
cut	Inge P. Drestler
occupation
Elisabeth Bergner : Margarete Johannsen Martin Held : Heinrich Johannsen Lilli Schoenborn : Mrs. Render Anneliese Würtz : Isolde Evelyn Hamann : Miss Schneider Edda Seippel : Home manager Mrs. Schmidt Ewald Wenck : Theodor Eva Lissa : Gertrude Otto Czarski : Kurt Ingeborg Wellmann : Maria Cornelia Meinhardt : Hildegard Friedhelm Ptok : Wolfgang Horst Poenichen : Dr. winter Klaus Sonnenschein : bus driver Edith Elsholtz : woman with dog Sabine Kaack : young woman on the bus Ursula Gerstel : Woman in the subway station

The Whitsun excursion is a German feature film from 1978.

action

Margarete and Heinrich Johannsen are an old couple who live in a retirement home in Berlin . They suffer from the physical deterioration of getting older and the gradual forgetfulness, are happy about their long-time together. They would like to visit their nephew in town on a long weekend of Pentecost . The director of the home denied them permission to go into town alone. They secretly sneak out of the home and set off. They firmly believe that their nephew invited them to Pentecost. Such a Pentecost meal used to be a tradition in her family .

This is how an odyssey through West Berlin begins . In the course of the excursion, they can neither remember a way to their nephew nor the reason for their departure. You may spend a friendly, sunny day in the city, which reminds you of the old days, but sometimes leaves you in despair. You meet numerous people, get into conflicts and have pleasant, but also less pleasant experiences. Finally, exhausted, they settle down in an empty church and dream together in the pew that they have reached their destination here and that their relatives are waiting for them upstairs in the church gallery, with whom they celebrate a happy Pentecost, as it used to be.

In the end, the police, who had meanwhile been alerted by the home management, picks them up in the church and brings them back to the old people's home.

Reviews

“A married couple living in a retirement home in Berlin cheats the authoritarian house management and goes on a trip on their own at Whitsun to bring them together with people they know from the past. A delightful idea, only processed into a thin story, but brilliantly played in the main roles. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Director Michael Günther and leading actress Elisabeth Bergner were awarded the Ernst Lubitsch Prize in 1979 .

Web links

• The Pentecostal trip in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Whitsun excursion at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Whitsun excursion. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 3, 2017 .