The delegation
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The delegation |
| Country of production | Germany |
| Publishing year | 1970 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK without age restriction |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rainer Erler |
| script | Rainer Erler |
| production | Rainer Erler |
| music | Eberhard Schoener |
| camera | Charly Steinberger |
| cut | Jacqueline Hoffmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The delegation (full title: The delegation - a utopian report ) is a German science fiction television film by Rainer Erler from 1970 . The film was produced by ZDF and produced in the Bavaria Atelier . The outdoor recordings took place in Germany, Canada, as well as in various locations in the USA and Peru . The first broadcast took place on September 9, 1970, 9.00pm-10.40pm.
action
The television program current forum brings a program about the last report of the journalist Will Roczinski, who was killed in a car accident. Numerous fragments of film and tape were recovered from the wrecked car, which in flashback combine to form an amazing puzzle.
Will Roczinski initially had various ufologists - u. a. Hermann Oberth - interviewed at a conference in Mainz , but showed clear skepticism. At the conference he learned of a UFO sighting in Canada . Then he tries to find out more about the sighting in Canada, and goes to the scene of the same. He interviews the farmer who took photos of the UFOs and meets a Miss Cumber who believes she was involved in an experience with alien astronauts. She owns photos of the astronauts and was given a strange little glass pyramid with a mysterious electronic part inside. She gives Roczinski the glass pyramid, which is now being examined in the laboratory.
He researches lawyers, theologians, astronomers and psychiatrists, nobody wants to rule out the existence of extraterrestrials. The journalist later visits a radio telescope . In nearby Elkins, West Virginia, a hobby electronics technician picked up a signal from space. When the glass pyramid on his television screen leads to an unexpected reaction, he thinks he is on a hot track.
The research leads him to a professor of astronomy who is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment. The latter explains to him that strange apparitions had occurred near Nazca (Peru) and that there it was claimed that the gods of yore had returned.
Roczinski and his cameraman travel to Nazca and follow a strange light phenomenon in the high mountains that disappears behind a hill. When the cameraman reached the hill, he was fatally struck by lightning. Roczinski flees to the next town with the film material and asks in broken Spanish for a "medico" (doctor). A villager believes Roczinski is a doctor himself and leads him into a house. There lies a man in astronaut clothing. He has an extremely bad cold and dies shortly afterwards. It is the man that the Canadian photographed during their encounter of the third kind!
On the way back, Roczinski is killed in a car accident. At the same time, a UFO is sighted near the scene of the accident.
background
The film had a high audience rating and generated considerable attention because it was laid out like a documentary . From the audience's reactions, it was evident that some considered the story to be authentic. Only the ufologists conference had actually taken place in a similar form. The corresponding film recordings reproduced the 7th International World Congress from November 3rd to 6th, 1967 in Mainz, whereby Rainer Erler was able to use the picture and text panels of this congress.
When the film was made, the books by the writer Erich von Däniken were making headlines.
The idea with the alien who died of a cold is similar to the finale of the novel War of the Worlds by HG Wells .
criticism
“The death of a television reporter who was working on a story about flying saucers is being researched using authentic sound and image documents. An interesting, entertaining television film that does not take a position on the subject of UFOs itself, but all the more effectively evokes a disturbing state of limbo. "
"Excitingly designed, in the usual interesting way of the 'Geiselgasteiger Dramaturgy'."
... With his television film "Die Delegation", Rainer Erler failed to create a symbiosis of factual documentation, skeptical commentary and human tragedy. On the whole, the show was a somewhat ridiculed "opening of the will" by the late television reporter Will Roczinsky. For the editors, Rocinczinsky has obviously fallen victim to mystification. The result of his research: there is a delegation of astronauts from another world with us. Serious scientists, but also sectarians and occultists appear in front of his camera. As a skeptic and a realist, he got caught up in the improbable. No explanation was given for the viewer, he received no clear statement about the UFOs.
AB: Flashback. Document of a tragedy , in: Nordwest-Zeitung of September 12, 1970, p. 10.
Others
The journalist's name is consistently written with -i at the end, but once also “Will Roczinsky” (when showing his 8 mm films) and in a telegram even “Will Adlzinski”.
The Canadian farmer and amateur photographer is called "Robert Tywell" by Roczinski, but you can see his photo in the newspaper with the subheading "John Tywell".
Rainer Erler later processed his script into a novel , which was published in 1973 under the title Die Delegation .
The film was released on DVD in 2005 in a version shortened to 97 minutes. As a bonus, an explanation by Erler from 1980 is included, which was shown on television before the film was repeated. In the explanation, Erler points out that the story about the journalist was made up in order to prevent further audience reactions.
See also
literature
- Rainer Erler: The delegation. An encounter of the third kind. Roman . Updated edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1995, 299 pages, ISBN 3-548-23590-5 .
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 147.
- AB: Flashback. Document of a tragedy. In: Nordwest-Zeitung of September 12, 1970, p. 10.
- “We are not the only living beings!” In: NordwestZeitung of September 11, 1970, p. 12.
Web links
- The delegation at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The delegation at filmportal.de
- Mathilde Köhler: In Search of the "Green Men" , in: Hamburger Abendblatt from September 9, 1970 (report on the shooting)
Individual evidence
- ^ The delegation. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 414/1970.