The homecoming of Joachim Ott

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Movie
Original title The homecoming of Joachim Ott
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1980
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Edgar Kaufmann
script Edgar Kaufmann
production DEFA on behalf of
East German television
music Werner Pauli
camera Rolf Sohre
cut Ruth Ebel
occupation

The Homecoming of Joachim Ott is a DEFA feature film commissioned by East German television by Edgar Kaufmann from 1980, based on motifs from the novel of the same name by Fritz Selbmann from 1962.

action

Joachim Ott is a former lieutenant in the army , who after eight years of captivity , he most of the time in Karaganda was spent, dismissed. Completely bitter because he was wrongly accused of a war crime by the Soviet authorities , in 1951 he was finally back in his hometown, which is now the GDR , and on the day of his arrival had to experience that his wife Bettina and his son were with one other man living together. Without revealing himself to her, he looks for a job in the new plant that is currently being built. The world's first low- shaft furnace is to be built on this construction site . Although he showed his dislike for the Soviet "friends" and the management, he was hired and assigned to civil engineering . In the evening he wants to make his bed in a barracks and immediately gets into trouble with the previous residents, which he can decide for himself thanks to his strength.

Peter Marzell is the new man at Bettina's side, who, after eight years without news from Joachim, no longer expects his return. But she has not forgotten him, which is why she carefully keeps his picture in the linen cupboard, between the towels. Marzell is the manager of the furnace operation, but not all of his employees like him either. The first furnace should go into operation in six months and there are constant changes to the design, which means additional work for the workers that they no longer want to accept. Although the first furnace is not yet technically mature and completed, the construction of nine more furnaces has already started.

One day Bettina wants to bring a warm meal to Peter on the construction site, where she works as a laboratory technician, when she suddenly sees Joachim. Immediately she drops the pot of food and runs to him to greet him with countless kisses, which he does not reciprocate, but continues without a word. Then she tells Peter what she just experienced and assures him that evening that it has not changed their relationship. She does not believe that Joachim and his unit in Ukraine should have killed the population of an entire village. When Joachim and Bettina took their first walk together to the places where they met before the Second World War , his bitterness about the false accusations came to light again, as they were still an issue even though he was acquitted.

Carola, who was working on the construction site, was seriously injured in the face during a test run of a conveyor belt on furnace 1. The cause was a hand grenade from Wehrmacht stocks deposited on the belt . Since the sabotage attacks have been increasing recently, the suspicion arises that Joachim Ott, who has only recently been active on the construction site, has something to do with it. At the end of the day, all workers working near the line are hastily arrested . On the same day Joachim Ott also disappears from the construction site without anyone noticing. The other workers are fired after the interrogations. There are no more disruptions on the construction site for the next 14 days.

Peter Marzell surprises Bettina with the allocation for a new apartment so that she can finally move out of her cramped room, which is too small for three people. Peter tells Bettina that Ott has disappeared since the explosion and will certainly not come back. But she defends Joachim that he was innocent of the sabotage and asks Peter to give him some time to think about moving into the new apartment. Peter then moves out of the shared room and hands over the apartment allocation to one of his colleagues, who urgently needs the apartment for himself, his wife and three children.

Joachim Ott comes back to the factory two weeks later and is immediately called to the works manager Theuerkauf, who has a long conversation with him and then sends him back to his old job. Joachim now sometimes meets with his son Jochen to go fishing. It is clear to him that Joachim is his father, but Peter remains his friend. Bettina is now clear that she still loves her child's father, which she also explains to Peter, but separating from him is difficult. It is just as difficult for them to win the embittered Joachim back for themselves.

Almost half a year has passed. The first furnace should go into operation three days before the second anniversary of the republic . Everyone is prepared for it and very excited to see whether everything will work out. But after a short time the cooling water fails. The cause is quickly found, it is a blockage by plants that are sucked in from the nearby river. During the inspection of the suction filter there, its willful destruction is detected, i.e. again sabotage. At the last moment it is possible to clean the cooling water line again and insert a new filter, which can prevent damage worth millions. Since the suction point is where Joachim Ott always fishes, he is immediately suspected. During an examination of his closet and the bed in the living quarters, a hand grenade is found, which further substantiates the suspicion. The first racking is successful and is celebrated accordingly by the furnace crew. During this time Ott is looking for the saboteur who wants to blame him for the disturbances, and he finds him. He is about to commit a new act of sabotage and, after his discovery, brings Ott into a life-threatening situation during a fight. The furnace crew can free him from this in time, but the perpetrator can escape. It is a colleague who was never under suspicion, but was able to direct it to Ott with various actions.

Months later, Peter Marzell moves to another city where he studies. Joachim Ott, still taciturn and withdrawn, feels solid ground under his feet again. Nothing stands in the way of a future together with Bettina and Jochen.

Production and publication

The homecoming of Joachim Ott was filmed under the working title Heimkehr on ORWO -Color and was first broadcast on April 20, 1980 in the first program of GDR television .

The scenario came from Rolf Gumlich and Horst Angermüller was responsible for the dramaturgy .

criticism

In New Germany Peter Hoff wrote:

"Unfortunately, in Edgar Kaufmann's directorial work, the film lacks the dialectical character structure as it is given in the book. This leads to the impoverishment of the individual profile of most characters. Marzell's renunciation of Bettina, which ultimately promoted Bettina's decision for Ott, is largely unfounded. This means that Weber's portrayal of Marzell remains angular, and the very beautiful breaks in development, as laid out in the book, are not made productive. This also makes it more difficult for Renate Blume to build up Bettina. And it is also made difficult for Gunter Schoß to develop Ott, who appears isolated for too long. His politically significant actions appear spontaneous, not as a quality envelope that has been prepared for a long time. The director has worked meticulously to ensure the consistency of the scenic details, but he owed a lot to the intellectual dimension. "

In the Neue Zeit , GS expressed itself as follows:

"Edgar Kaufmann [...] directed this film, which receives essential impulses from the atmosphere of the post-war period and has particularly strong effects where Rolf Sohres 'camera is given the opportunity to show a sparse home furnishings, the desolate environment of a construction workers' hut, the lonely homecoming figure to grasp the backdrop of the Spreewald landscape and to communicate emotional experiences through the imagery. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from June 15, 1979, p. 4
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland from April 22, 1980, p. 7
  3. ↑ Neue Zeit of April 23, 1980, p. 4