The parties
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The parties |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Horst E. Brandt |
| script | Gerhard Bengsch |
| production | DEFA , "Berlin" group |
| music | Rainer Bohm |
| camera | Peter Badel |
| cut | Rosemarie Drinkorn |
| occupation | |
| |
The Participants is a German crime film by DEFA by Horst E. Brandt from 1989.
action
In 1964 the corpse of the employee Christa Gellert is recovered from the Elbe . She was on a business trip with her superior, City Councilor Willi Stegmeier, and her colleague Anna Sell. While picking the pussy willow she fell into the water, could not swim and drowned, although Stegmeier was still trying to save her. Everything points to an accident and Christa is buried.
Soon everyone in the small town knew about what had happened. After a brief investigation detective Erwin Müller will put the case on file, but his young staff, which because of a too early to files down fall of Berlin criminal displaced in the province Hans Gregor, come doubts. Christa's mother said on the transmission of death that she suspected it. Christa's aunt reports of a missing savings account and the note of the name "Bröge" in Christa's notebook. In January, Christa also traveled to Berlin with her colleague Helga Jordan, after which Christa's savings book was found again. Helga is Hans Gregor's roommate, both start in a relationship. Hans finds out that Bröge is the gynecologist Dr. Martin Bröge acts, who also performs abortions. Christa was pregnant, but Bröge refused to have an abortion. Helga initially denies any knowledge, but then indicates that City Councilor Stegmeier was the child's father.
Since Stegmeier denies an affair with Christa and Anna Sell also denies any knowledge of an affair or Christa's pregnancy, Christa's body is exhumed on the instructions of the public prosecutor Matthes. It turns out that Christa was actually pregnant. Even a renewed interrogation of Stegmeier does not help the investigators, especially since Erwin Müller does not want to raise any doubts about the integrity of the city council because of his friendship with Stegmeier. On the contrary, he tries to convict Helga of the false testimony. This was from the study relegated been and should work fine for web Meier in the work. Since she would have received a rather bad rating from him because of “lack of social activity”, Müller suspected that she wanted to take revenge on Stegmeier with her statement. When she sticks to her accusation Stegmeier and also suggests that Stegmeier and Anna Sell have a relationship, the interrogation gets out of control. Erwin and Hans accuse each other of bias and Erwin finally releases Hans from the case.
Helga goes to Berlin on her own to see Dr. Bröge. He had stated to Hans that Christa was not sent to him on recommendation. Helga suspects that this is not the case and asks him to finally tell the truth and reveal who was behind it. In the end, they put themselves under pressure: they are the artist couple Sorge, who arranged various favors for the doctor. Erwin asks Hans to take part in the investigation again. Both bring Stegmeier back for questioning and he finally admits that Christa was pregnant by him, but insists that her death was an accident. He is in custody taken. When both investigators tried to question Anna Sell again, she committed suicide. In her suicide note, she confesses to the murder of Christa Gellert. Christa had become pregnant by Stegmeier during a business trip, and the doctor did not want to perform an abortion because Christa and Helga had come to the practice. Then Christa Stegmeier pushed for a divorce. Anna, who was a slave to Stegmeier, made common cause with him. On the bogus business trip, she drowned Christa, while Stegmeier made a "rescue attempt" when the woman was long dead. Stegmeier now confesses the act.
When they both leave the police station, Erwin admits that Hans had the better nose and that he, Erwin, was too close to the case to be able to solve it.
production
The script for The Participants was based on an authentic case that had occurred in the early 1960s. The material that was planned to be made into a film in 1964 was not allowed to be realized in connection with the 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee, which heralded a cultural “ice age”, so that test recordings that had already started had to be stopped. Therefore, the film planned as Horst E. Brandt's directorial debut finally became his last completed feature film 20 years later.
The participants were filmed in Stendal . The film had its world premiere on June 15, 1989 at the Berlin Kino International .
criticism
The contemporary criticism criticized the film and especially the dialogues: "Language seems arbitrary, interchangeable, is little more than factual information". The film is not a good film, "especially not for the cinema."
The lexicon of international film called The Participants a "remarkably critical examination of the recent past of the former GDR."
Cinema wrote: “The story is only slowly taking off. Nonetheless, there remains a critical study of the stink and clinking that existed under socialism. Conclusion: interior views from the former GDR ”.
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 71-72 .
Web links
- The participants in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Those involved at filmportal.de
- The participants at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ The participants in MDR.de ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ a b The participants. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Henr Goldberg: The subject is good… . In: Filmspiegel , No. 15, 1989, p. 14.
- ↑ Those involved. In: Cinema , Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 6, 2018.