The uninvited guest

This article deals with the GDR feature film from 1981. For the US horror film from 1944 shown on television under the same title, see: Der unheimliche Gast (film)

Movie
Original title	The uninvited guest
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1981
length	168 minutes
Rod
Director	Peter Wekwerth
script	Gerhard Bengsch
production	DEFA
music	Bernd Wefelmeyer
camera	Horst Hardt
cut	Vera Nowark
occupation
Karol Strasburger : Robert Zodinger Angelika Waller : Anna Zodinger Alfred Struwe : Hilber Annekathrin Bürger : Elsa Hilber Werner Dissel : Stutz Jörg Panknin : Hans Schori Ute Lubosch : Vreni Ulrich Anschütz : Köhmer Gerry Wolff : Grüninger Horst Schulze : Krantz Wolfgang Greese : Dr. serious Walter Plathe : from Karth Helmut Schellhardt : Gregor Zeitz Adolf Peter Hoffmann : Turtschin Kathrin Waligura : Maid Sophie

The Uninvited Guest is a German television film in two parts by Peter Wekwerth . The literary model was provided by the Swiss writer Arthur Honegger with his novel When they come tomorrow . It was produced by DEFA on behalf of GDR television.

action

The German couple Anna and Robert Zodinger are on the run from the Nazis in Germany and the two emigrate to Switzerland. For the former editor Zodinger, extradition to Germany would mean imprisonment in a concentration camp or even death. The old weaver Stutz protects both of them, also against hostility from his son-in-law Hilber. Hilber, who finds himself in economic difficulties with his weaving mill, does business with Nazi Germany and cannot use any emigrants under his roof. Always on the run, Anna earns a living as a waitress. Robert is interned in Ticino after the Nazis invade France. He fell ill in the camp and after the Swiss authorities had decided to expel him, friends got him a passport for a trip to Moscow. But it is too late: on the journey through the Swiss Alps, he dies in the arms of his wife Anna.

Reviews

"GDR television film that tries to differentiate the social and character spectrum of both the exiles and their hosts."

- Lexicon of international film

background

The novel by Arthur Honegger paints a lively and multi-layered picture of life in neutral Switzerland in the years around 1940. The main theme is the fear of the Swiss population that they will also become the target of the German occupiers after the occupation of France. Among the characters there are the anti-Nazis as well as the followers and the unscrupulous profiteers. In the cinematic implementation, the story is told from the perspective of the German émigré couple Zodinger, which actually does not appear in the novel.

Charisma

The first broadcast of the two parts of the film took place on December 25, 1981 (part 1) and on December 27, 1981 (part 2) on GDR 1 .

Web links

• The uninvited guest in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The uninvited guest at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The uninvited guest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 26, 2016 .