The great navigator
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The great navigator - God is only human too |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German , English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 80 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Sigrun Koehler Wiltrud Baier |
| script | Sigrun Koehler Wiltrud Baier |
| production | Böller and Brot GbR in coproduction with Arek Gielnik and ZDF / Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Christian Cloos |
| camera | Sigrun Koehler, Wiltrud Baier, Bernadette Paassen, Knut Schmitz |
| cut | Sigrun Koehler, Wiltrud Baier |
| occupation | |
| |
“The great navigator - God is only human” is an 80-minute documentary that was made in 2007 in Germany. The authors are the filmmakers Sigrun Köhler and Wiltrud Baier, who became known for gravel like hay and belong to the artist group “ Böller und Brot ”. The subjects are the East German province and the subject of faith.
Creation and publication
The film by the Grimme Prize winners was shot over a period of almost a year on DV and Super-16mm in Neubrandenburg, Schwerin , Wismar (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest . The large navigator was produced by the production company “Böller und Brot” in coproduction with ZDF ( Das kleine Fernsehspiel ). The project was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Media and Film Funding, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Cultural Film Funding and Akademie Schloss Solitude . The big Navigator ran on December 22nd and December 24th, 2007 on ZDF in the series "Das Kleine Fernsehspiel". It was released in theaters on December 6, 2007 (distributed by GMfilms).
Content focus
The filmmakers accompany a Swabian Christian in his new, unfamiliar field of work in discussions with punks , district administrators and former athletes. The evangelical missionary Jakob Walter was transferred to East Germany in 1993 after 22 years of missionary work among former cannibals in Papua New Guinea . At various locations in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , the Pietist from the Liebenzeller Mission reached the limits of his pastoral possibilities and, in view of his failure, had to struggle with religious doubts himself. The documentary thrives on many “clever, ironic metaphors and, beyond questions of faith, says a lot about German-German sensitivities”. The working principle and ideal of the authors is “realism”. The title “The Great Navigator ” is an allusion to the navigation system with which Jakob Walter drives through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also an allusion to God.
action
Most people in the former district town of Neubrandenburg can not do anything with God . In order to get closer to them, Walter speaks to people in a wide variety of areas of life: in gymnastics groups, fun pools and shopping centers. But his questions seem alien here. Then the navigation system of the car that is supposed to lead the man to the country dwellers fails. He only reaches his destination in the country via detours.
The main character's missionary work, which he performed in the Pacific island nation for two decades, also included practical handicrafts. He built over 20 churches with his own hands. The practical disposition also benefits him in his missionary work. But the difficulties are on the mental, atmospheric level. The everyday life of Walter's interlocutors are unemployment, hopelessness, fear and poverty. You want to make yourself hard for the struggle for existence. The missionary has to struggle with this hardening.
Walter distributes the church paper at the weekly market, but hardly anyone wants it. The woman from office fends off all attempts by Walter to engage in a religious conversation. You can also hear the October Club song: "Tell me where you are". In the second stanza it says: “When you talk, you may give yourself the nakedness / that you have never considered where to go. You diminish your own greatness through silence. / I tell you: Then your life will be meaningless! “ Walter tries - mostly in vain - to invite young people to the Christian disco . He tries to make contacts by means of a street survey. Collected short interviews are part of a repetitive method of film.
criticism
“A documentary about faith does not have to contribute to the theological-philosophical debate. The fact that the film consistently dispenses with a level of reflection, even one voice beyond ignorance, indifference or naivety, is unfortunate, because it makes it all too comfortable between the East Germans, who are represented here religiously completely unmusical, and the religiously 'irradiated' Swabian missionaries. The protagonists shown would certainly be able to make clever sentences. Baier and Köhler, on the other hand, content themselves with subtle amusement with a mood picture: Here everyone is talking past one another. They wink at the viewer with their felt sociology, which they call 'real existing realism': But we are so enlightened. "
“The film polarizes:… export of bananas and now also religion to the East”… “Search for meaning on different wavelengths”… “This search for answers is the true greatness of the film, which touches us, attacks us and forces us to answer our own. (August Geyler, DachKino Leipzig) ' "... strong images of two who are amazed at humanity in a foreign Germany and one who is hoping for a miracle there."
Others
The main actor Jakob Walter died on December 12, 2008 in Neubrandenburg after a long and serious illness.
Web links
- The great navigator in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The great navigator in the online film database
- Missionary and “main actor” Jakob Walter in an interview with pro-medienmagazin.de
- Internet presence of the documentary "The Great Navigator"
- Trailer for the film
- "Oasis in the Reitbahnviertel" - social missionary church planting project Jakob Walters in Neubrandenburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ 48th Grimme Prize 2012 ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Grimme Institute , portrait of the award winners, accessed on June 23, 2012
- ↑ "Outstanding Achievements in German Television" ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Grimme Institute, press release on the 2012 award of March 13, 2012
- ↑ Information about the film on the database page of the distributor GMfilms, accessed on June 23, 2012
- ↑ "The big navigator" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Lausitzer Rundschau from February 25, 2009
- ^ Matthias Heine: A missionary in McPomm: "The Great Navigator" , Die Welt online from May 8, 2008
- ↑ The great navigator. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ "The Great Navigator - In the Country" , FAZ No. 286 / Page 40 of December 8, 2007
- ↑ Lutz Lichtenberger: "The documentary film 'The Great Navigator' accompanies a Swabian missionary - With God in East Germany" , Berliner Zeitung of May 13, 2008
- ↑ Cinema tip: “The Great Navigator” - The new film by the directors of “Schotter wie Heu” ( memento of the original from May 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on: EKD.de Media Tips, Archive 2007, accessed on June 24, 2012
- ↑ Obituary of the Mecklenburg Community Association ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated December 12, 2008
