The border road

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Movie
German title The border road
Original title Graniczna Street
Film no 31-32 - Maja Broniewska - 1947-12-23.JPG
Country of production Poland
original language Polish
Publishing year 1948
length 115 minutes
Rod
Director Aleksander Ford
script Ludwik Starski
Aleksander Ford
Jan Fethke
production Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych, Lódź
music Roman Palester
camera Jaroslav Tuzar
cut Jirina Lukesova
occupation

Grenzstraße is a Polish war and Holocaust drama film directed by Aleksander Ford, shot in 1947 .

action

In Poland in the summer of 1939 there was deep peace. The place of action is initially a very ordinary Warsaw apartment building. The tenants are of various natures and social origins. There is, for example, the enterprising Bronek, then the young Władek, son of a Polish officer with great reservations and prejudices against Jews, as well as Fredek, the sneaky son of the pub owner Kusmirek, the little Jewish boy David Libermann with grandfather and the young Hedwig, theirs Father of the wealthy doctor Dr. Białek is. There are the normal quarrels, little pranks and the usual house gossip. The peace comes to an abrupt end when the German Wehrmacht marches into the Polish capital. Suddenly everything changes overnight, the Polish residents are harassed, their Jewish fellow citizens persecuted and arrested. Some of them somehow want to come to terms with the new rulers and circumstances, others clench their fists in their pockets and still others have to go into hiding as quickly as possible because they have already been put up for investigation.

The old Jew Libermann, himself in great danger, hides the Jew hater and officer Kazimierz Wojtan, Wladek's father, who has hitherto been rather brash and haughty. When this is discovered, the soldier is shot. The Libermanns have to leave their apartment and move to the Warsaw ghetto, which has been specially set up for the Jewish population . Bronek tries as best he can to help them there. Kusmirek tries to make friends with the "new masters" and ingratiate himself with them at every opportunity. He even puts his own son in the clothes of a Hitler Youth. When the characterless pub at Dr. Białek discovered Jewish roots, he immediately denounced him to the Gestapo. He promises to be able to take over his apartment. In fact, the doctor is picked up and deported to the ghetto, where he ultimately perishes. In 1943 there was an uprising against the German occupiers . David and Hedwig use the opportunity to flee from the Germans through the sewer system. Bronek and Władek help them in a decisive way. But David wants to go back to the ghetto to fight the Nazis with gun in hand, side by side with his brothers. Władek hands him the pistol of his shot, anti-Semitic father for this fight.

Production notes

Most of Grenzstraße was filmed in May 1947, presented the following year at the 9th Venice International Film Festival , and hit Polish cinemas on June 23, 1949. The German premiere took place on April 16, 1962 on GDR television.

Contrary to what has often been read, Die Grenzstraße did not get beyond a prize nomination at the 1948 Biennale.

Reviews

Reclam's film guide said: “The film vividly shows the destruction of a peaceful community through the war. He does not hide the cracks in Polish society, the latent anti-Semitism in pre-war Poland, the willingness to collaborate. Władek's gesture at the end should also be a symbolic promise for the future. In detail, this is impressive and realistic. The dramaturgy, however, seems a bit artificial. And there are also clichéd sentimental motifs - like when Hedwig rescues an SS man's dog and is later rescued twice by the grateful animal. "

In the Lexicon of International Films it is written: "Feature film by a pioneer of Polish cinematography, supplemented with documentary material and awarded in Venice in 1948."

In Ford's biography, the film's large personal lexicon reads: "His importance as a director is primarily based on his gripping story from the time of the Warsaw Ghetto," Ulica graniczna "."

Individual evidence

  1. Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 574. Stuttgart 1973.
  2. The border road. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 18, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 44.

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