The carbide factory
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The carbide factory |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 25 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Heinz Brinkmann |
| script | Heinz Brinkmann |
| production | DEFA studio for documentaries |
| camera | Jürgen Hoffmann |
| cut | Karin Schöning |
Die Karbidfabrik is a documentary film from DEFA Studio for Documentaries by Heinz Brinkmann from 1988 .
action
In October 1987 in the VEB Chemische Werke Buna combine in Schkopau , the film team wants to get to know the workers who are employed in a 50-year-old factory. Here carbide is melted from coal and limestone at temperatures around 2000 degrees Celsius . This is a basic material for plastic , man-made fibers and car tires . Because crude oil became the most important raw material for the chemical industry in the 1960s and 1970s, it was thought that the carbide production facilities could be run to wear and tear and nothing more would have to be invested . There is now a new concept for carbide production beyond the year 2000. A new furnace is already planned, which will cost 150 million marks, and the installation of a filter planned for 1993 is intended to achieve a noticeable improvement in environmental pollution. Siegfried Richter, Head of the Carbide Production Department, explains the strategic decision to continue manufacturing certain chemical products with carbide instead of petroleum. Carbide production is possible with local raw materials and thus saves a lot of money for the imports that are otherwise required and the dependence on other suppliers is no longer given. However, it is clear to the decisive points that this decision does not make economic sense.
Sayings such as “If you can endure a summer in carbide, you stay” and “We're happy when we get home from work in the evening” made the film people curious. Who are the men who work behind the gray facade under these conditions? In the past, workers from various professions came to the carbide factory. Franz Aszakis has been employed here for over 20 years, a trained blacksmith who has also gone to sea. The employees talk about grievances, lack of investment and future prospects in the form of new technologies with great openness and a carefree narrative. According to one worker, the physical exertion is no longer the worst, but the heat. But many organizational issues are also criticized, such as the plan to increase the furnace fee for repairs, which was not adhered to, the lowering of the retirement age to 60 for the furnace workers fizzled out and the supply of vitamins such as bananas, oranges, Cherries and other types of fruit have been reduced to distributing Rabarberjuice for two years. Many of the young people who start out in production as helpers are of the opinion that they are not there to work, but to earn money, which Franz Aszakis has no understanding for, because whoever wants to earn money has to do something for it. Some of the workers ask their critical questions in the party meetings of the SED and demand clarification about inadequate information regarding operational issues, because many are of the opinion that although it is possible to fly to the moon today, nothing will change in their company.
Production and publication
Reinhard Kraetzer was responsible for the dramaturgy.
The carbide factory was filmed by the artistic working group Kinobox under the working title Carbidarbeiter on ORWO -Color and had its world premiere in mid-October 1988 during the 11th National Festival Documentary and Short Film of the GDR for cinema and television in Neubrandenburg : The first verifiable broadcast on television took place on November 7, 1989 in the 2nd program of the television of the GDR .
criticism
Volker Müller wrote in Neues Deutschland :
“Heinz Brinkmann's film 'Die Karbidfabrik' is also remembered, respectful, memorable images of workers who, under the difficult conditions of an outdated plant, do the economically necessary with vitality. Loyalty to the company, dignity. "
In the Neue Zeit wrote Matthias Schlegel:
“They are not drawn as heroes who are in the black, but rather as 'ordinary' people with perseverance and strength, with wishes and ideas. And suddenly the strip leads to the ethical crucial question: What is reasonable for people due to economic constraints, what is ecologically responsible? The creators of the film do not want to (can?) Answer them, but they want to provoke thought about it, knowing full well that compromises are also part of life under socialism, that what is scientifically, technically and economically feasible usually still lag behind what is ergonomically and ecologically desirable that there are still gaps between demands and reality with regard to working conditions, even in a society that places the well-being of people at the center of its efforts. And they want to raise awareness of this and keep looking at the limits of what is necessary and what is responsible. "
Web links
- The carbide factory at filmportal.de
- The carbide factory at the DEFA Foundation
- Ralf Schenk on the problems with the release of the film in the Berliner Zeitung
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Neues Deutschland, October 18, 1988, p. 6
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of November 2, 1989, p. 9
- ↑ Neue Zeit of July 5, 1989, p. 4