The Rajgrod smugglers

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Movie
Original title The Rajgrod smugglers
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1980
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director Konrad Petzold
script Konrad Petzold
production DEFA , KAG "Red Circle"
music Gerhard Rosenfeld
camera Siegfried Hönicke
cut Ilse Peters
Thea Judge
Monika Schindler
occupation

The Smuggler von Rajgrod is a German DEFA film by Konrad Petzold from 1980 based on the 1979 story of the same name by Günter Karl .

action

There are two small towns on the edge of the Masurian Lake District . On the Prussian side is the place elk and on the Polish side is that for a long time from Russia annexed , Raigrod to find. Between the two towns there is a lake on which the border between the German Empire and the Russian Empire is located. This is where the story of this film begins in the spring of 1903, when Martin Anskath goes for a walk through Lyck with his girlfriend Line Dreßler and Martin shows her the carpenter's workshop of master Batuttis, where he once completed his apprenticeship and which he now intends to buy. He earns the money he needs with his boat, with which he smuggles a wide variety of things and people across the border , because it is safer than by land.

One day Martin takes the train to the Russian side to Rajgrod for the wedding of his half-brother Jan Anskath with Anna Dreßler, the sister of his friend Line. Although he is late, he receives a warm welcome, especially from Line. He gives her a gold ring, which can be interpreted as a sign of engagement. When her father Waldemar Dreßler notices this, he is very angry because he does not want to give his daughter to the marauder. He does not yet know that Martin intends to stop his smuggling tours in a year when he has made enough money to be able to pay for the carpentry. Martin drives home angrily across the border.

There is a branch of North German Lloyd on the market square in Lyck , which is managed by Mr. Schwemmin. This head of the office bribes police officers who ship incoming refugees to his office so that he can sell them tickets for a boat trip to America, although that is not their destination. After talking to Martin Anskath, Schwemmin wants to get him to bring the refugees he brought across the border to his office, of course for an appropriate payment. Martin brought the next refugee, a pastor who had Bibles in Latvian script, which is forbidden in Russia, to the North German Lloyd. The next group that wants to go to Germany are three anarchists who wanted to kill the police chief in Vilnius . Although the boat is shot at, Martin manages to deliver it to Schwemmin. But since the anarchists have no money for the crossing to America, he delivers them to the German police.

Josef Rosenfeld from Berlin arrives at the master shoemaker Waldemar Dreßler's in Lyck, who is supposed to pick up a Russian comrade who is supposed to take part in a party conference of the Russian Social Democrats . At the same time he arrives at Jan Anskath's mill in Rajgrod, from where he is to be brought across the border. Line Dreßler takes a suitcase with copies of the revolutionary newspaper Iskra across the border by train and has to watch as the three anarchists are deported back to Russia by the Prussian police. Anna and Jan drive to the train station to pick up Line and watch the anarchists hand over to the Russian dragoons . Two of them are killed instantly, while one of them escapes. They drive back to the mill, where Martin also arrives, who here learns from Jan that two people were killed at the border. Jan realizes that it is about the anarchists he has brought across the border and wants to kill Schwemmin, but the police force him to prevent him from doing so.

The incidents at the border, including political people smuggling and specimens of Iskra found, alerted the police and intervened on a large scale. Waldemar Dreßler was arrested, along with the teacher Prill and the engine driver Grigoleit. On the Russian side, the dragoons occupy Jan Anskath's mill, where the delegate is still hiding. Martin is on his way there to take him over the border, while the anarchist who has fled is secretly following him. In the mill, the anarchist begins a fight against the dragoons in which he kills several of them until he is hit by a bullet himself. In the confusion, Jan and Martin manage to get the delegate out of his hiding place and to flee with him to Prussia. Only after 15 years can the two half-brothers come back to Rajgrod, both of whom have matured in the fight against the emperor, tsar and war. The border still exists, but the revolution in Russia has now triumphed.

Production and publication

The Rajgrod Smuggler was filmed on ORWO color by the artistic work group “Red Circle” and had its premiere on April 18, 1980 in the Colosseum cinema in Berlin . The film was broadcast for the first time on December 28, 1981 by the first program on East German television.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Waldemar Dreßler Leon Niemczyk : Eberhard Mellies
Line Dreßler Lenka Pichlíková Margrit Manz
Mother Anskath Irene Kownas Marianne Wünscher
Jan Anskath Petr Skarke Christoph Lau
Delegate Andrzej Reiter Dieter Knust

criticism

In New Germany , KJ Wendlandt wrote:

“However, the author was unable to make a good script from his epic model. The story is too long and cumbersome. A lot of confusing details and inconclusive situations make it difficult to access and understand. Real tension or inner involvement in what is happening can hardly arise. The main characters half to speak in places poor, ostensible dialogues. "

The lexicon of international film says:

"Historical adventure film, striving for authenticity, but superficial in the political statement, uncertain in the leadership of the characters and level in the implementation."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neue Zeit of April 18, 1980, p. 8
  2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of December 24, 1981, p. 4
  3. ↑ Neues Deutschland from April 19, 1980, p. 4
  4. ↑ The Smugglers of Rajgrod. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 26, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used