The Hamburg disease

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Movie
Original title The Hamburg disease
Country of production Germany , France
original language German
Publishing year 1979
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Fleischmann
script Peter Fleischmann,
Otto Jägersberg ,
Roland Topor
production Peter Fleischmann,
Willi Segler
music Jean Michel Jarre ,
Erich Ferstl
camera Colin Mounier
cut Susan Zinowsky
occupation

The Hamburg Disease is a German science fiction film directed by Peter Fleischmann from 1979 . The German premiere (cinema) was on November 23, 1979. The film is a German-French joint production by Hallelujah-Film Munich, Bioskop-Film Munich, Terra Filmkunst Berlin, SND Paris and ZDF .

action

When several unexplained deaths occur in Hamburg in which the dead die without symptoms of the disease and are found in an embryonic position, the health department reacts : All contact persons of the dead are placed in strict quarantine , even suspicion of contact is sufficient. The media will soon be talking about the Hamburg disease.

In quarantine, the doctor Sebastian, the sausage seller Heribert and the introverted Ulrike get to know each other. Heribert is planning his escape from quarantine, and Ottokar, who is dependent on a wheelchair, helps them from outside. The four manage to break out and leave Hamburg on a road leading south just before the final lockdown. In an abandoned village where the dead are lying on the street, Heribert leaves the group after an argument. While searching the village they meet Fritz. Fritz tries in a panic to avoid any contact with others, but joins the group anyway. They also get to know Alexander, who in all the chaos is still calmly carrying out his assignment, the transfer of a caravan. From then on, the group will travel on with the caravan.

When they reach Lüneburg , the city is already cordoned off. Meanwhile, Heribert tries to do business with his food truck . Sebastian and Ulrike separate from the group and try to get into town on foot. Chaotic conditions arise, panic , turmoil and anomie rule . The authorities are trying to contain the disease with vaccinations. Sebastian, who is looking for his sister, only finds her abandoned apartment and dies there shortly afterwards. The next day Ulrike returns to the group alone. There are also two Italians with a baby. One of them dies too.

One evening they arrive at a locked bar that is noisy. After opening them, the group gets into a strange party. There they meet again with Heribert, who now benefits from the catastrophe and takes people out with a gang, Ottokar now joins Heribert again.

Alexander can deliver his caravan. The group then travels on in a houseboat. In addition, Fritz leaves the now decimated troop for fear of infection. Arriving in the south, Alexander is shot dead by self-appointed homeland guards; Ulrike comes back into quarantine and is supposed to be vaccinated. With Ottokar and Heribert, who are now trying to gain profit from the crisis by selling protective suits , Ulrike is able to flee to her grandfather in the Alps again. There they hear that the plague is said to be gone. Nevertheless, those who have not been vaccinated until then are still being sought. Ottokar warns people that the next disaster is coming. Ulrike is caught again and flown out in a helicopter.

Reviews

"This film by the director Peter Fleischmann [...] is a strange, but fascinating mixture of science fiction, disaster film and German reality."

- BR : evening post / night edition of November 23, 1979

"Utopian end-time drama with surreal features."

- TV movie

"Thematically completely overloaded, mentally confused and stylistically heterogeneous political-ecological study."

- Lexicon of international film

"Peter Fleischmann (has) succeeded in making an entertaining film that surreally, absurdly and satirically sketches a future for our country that - the Hamburg poison scandal is a clear indication - is not so improbable and far away."

- Film observer , quoted from Hahn / Jansen, Vol. 1, p. 403.

"Fleischmann's staging is as eccentric as the staff of this apocalyptic farce between the Reeperbahn and the Almhütte: a series of violent style breaks, regardless of aesthetic losses."

- Hans-Christoph Blumenberg : Die Zeit , edition 50/1979

background

  • The film was published by the authors' film publisher .
  • Two months before the cinema release, the film was shown in a rough version approx. 8 minutes longer at the Hamburg Film Festival .
  • The film was first broadcast on television on March 29, 1982 at 9:20 p.m. and on July 2, 1996 it was repeated for the first time on ARTE . From June 20, 2020, it ran for 14 days with an accompanying interview on the Internet channel KenFM on the occasion of the Corona crisis .
  • The film was released on DVD on December 2, 2010 .
  • Jean Michel Jarre's film music comes largely from his albums Oxygène and Equinoxe.

Awards

  • At the 1980 Mystfest , the international festival of mystery films in Cattolica, Italy, Peter Fleischmann was honored as best director.
  • The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

literature

  • Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 2000 films from 1902 until today . 2 volumes, Heyne, Munich 1997 (Heyne Filmbibliothek, Vol. 32), ISBN 3-453-11860-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hanns-Georg Rodek: Only catastrophes bring mankind forward. In: The world . April 2, 2020, accessed on April 15, 2020 (paid).
  2. ↑ deutsches-filminstitut.de ( Memento from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ The Hamburg disease. In: TV feature film . Archived from the original on June 1, 2016 ; accessed on April 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ rororo-Taschenbuch No. 6322 (1988), p. 1480
  5. ^ Hans-Christoph Blumenberg : Film tips: The Hamburg disease. In: Die Zeit , issue 50/1979. December 7, 1979. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The Hamburg disease in the OFDb or deutsches-filminstitut.de ( Memento from October 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Second German television, information and press / public relations: Das Fernsehspiel on ZDF - Issue 36, March, April, May 1982 . Mainz, February 1982.