Show duty

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Movie
Original title Show duty
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1984
length 73 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Helmut Dziuba
script Helmut Dziuba
Anne Pfeuffer (dramaturgy)
production DEFA ( Berlin Group )
Erich Albrecht (Production Manager)
music Christian Steyer
camera Helmut Bergmann
cut Barbara Simon
occupation

Appear duty is the title of a partially socially critical youth films of DEFA , the on motifs from Gerhard Holtz-Baumert based and the confrontation of a 16-year-old girl with their lives and the political situation in the Democratic German Republic addressed (DDR). The film produced in 1983 and directed by Helmut Dziuba and written the screenplay was shown for the first time in cinemas on May 16, 1984 as part of the third GDR National Feature Film Festival. Broadcasts on television took place on July 25, 1987 on Bavarian Radio and on March 7, 1990 on the first program of the German television station , the state television of the GDR. In 2006 the film was released on DVD by Icestorm Entertainment .

action

The film depicts the life of 16-year-old Elisabeth Haug, who grows up as the daughter of a GDR functionary in well-protected circumstances. She is brought to school in the service Volga of her father, who has been chairman of the district council for 19 years . A rebuke is canceled on the instructions of her father . When her father suddenly dies at 54, she is torn from her previously regulated living conditions and begins to grapple with her depressed mother and question her previous life and her image of her father and the GDR. Her school friend Stefan and her brother Peter, who had distanced himself from her parents and with whom she is again making contact, play an important role.

The title-giving part of the plot is a rally by the GDR youth association Free German Youth (FDJ) in Berlin, at which FDJ members are obliged to appear and Elisabeth also takes part. On the way back from visiting her brother, she is verbally attacked in the S-Bahn by a drunken construction worker because of her FDJ flag. Despite her own critical thoughts since the death of her father, she successfully defends herself against the rabble and the attempt of the construction worker to throw the flag off the train. Elisabeth reaches her class and the train home on time.

History of origin

Dziuba often wrote the scripts for his films himself, including for the appearance of obligation , which he freely adapted from two stories from the volume of stories of the same name by Gerhard Holtz-Baumert. In preparation for the shooting of the film, Dziuba grouped his “professional actors” around amateur actors. “Some had to know the text and the corridors. The others were the most authentic, the more they were allowed to play freely, the fewer repetitions were made. On the fifth or sixth repetition, adolescents lose all freshness. I also preferred to make a slip of the tongue, ”says Dziuba. He took almost half a year to constantly switch roles among the young people in order to test their acting skills. The main role of Elisabeth was played by several girls, but Vivian Hanjohr Dziuba impressed the most, as did supporting actress Lissy Tempelhof .

reception

In 1984, appearing duty was premiered as the opening film of the third National Feature Film Festival in Karl-Marx-Stadt . With his production, however, Dziuba met with rejection from Erich Honecker and his wife Margot , the then minister of education . As a result, the jury from Berlin was put under so much pressure that the film only received one honorable mention.

“People from the audience jury came to me with tears in their eyes - and I was dominated by an unlikely helplessness. Schizophrenia consisted in our submitting to the negative judgment of leading officials in our state. Had to submit [...] but that is a question of doubt, "said Dziuba about the events in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

Horst Knietzsch , film critic of the SED central organ Neues Deutschland , accused Dziuba of “resigned melancholy” as well as “shaping conflicts that hardly motivate constructive social action, but rather leave behind disaffection [...] What is realistic is basically revealed as Unrealistic. The artistic metaphors that suggest a generation conflict stand in stark contrast to our 35-year reality, ”says Knietzsch. Only after it was shown on GDR television was the film critic to admit that he would write differently about the film today: “Back then it was not an aesthetic, but a political judgment,” says Knietzsch.

After the premiere in Karl-Marx-Stadt, the film was largely withdrawn from the programs of cinemas in the GDR due to its socially critical plot elements. Despite the political commitment of the main character in the S-Bahn scene, appearances were only compulsory to be seen in closed performances where the director had to be present. These had to be approved by the district chairman. Nevertheless, the film was requested particularly often at youth consecration events.

It was only after the political change in 1989/90, six years after its first showing, that the film was shown on GDR television. The West-Berliner tageszeitung praised Dziuba's film for its “honest insights into the GDR before the fall of the wall” and, despite the changed situation, as still “current and informative”. Dziuba's film language was “reserved and by no means destructive”, so that it would be difficult to understand the excitement surrounding the film, according to taz journalist Constanze Pollatschek a few weeks later.

Klaus Seehafer, critic of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , expressed his amazement at a screening organized by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Wolfen's industrial and film museum in September 2008 about “what was possible in GDR films in those years. […] There is a lot of talk of fleeing the republic, an aggressively creaking worker, played by Uwe Kockisch , can threaten the heroine in the workers 'and peasants' state ”, says Seehafer.

In the lexicon of international films , the film is described, among other things, as a "DEFA contemporary film, which is characterized by the loving yet critical drawing of the characters and their environment and which tries to convey the young generation's attitude towards language and life in a credible and communicative way to let in. "

Awards

The film received an honorable mention at the third GDR National Feature Film Festival in 1984. Peter Sodann and Simone von Zglinicki were honored as best supporting actors for their roles in the film at the same festival. The film received another award in the Best Costumes category .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Klaus Seehafer: Amused about the foreseeable . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . Edition of September 20, 2008 (accessed on August 12, 2009 via Wiso praxis )
  2. ↑ a b c Constanze Pollatschek: That was reprehensible . In: the daily newspaper . Edition of April 26, 1990, p. 17
  3. ^ Maria M. Walther: Vorlauf: Attack on blue flags . In: the daily newspaper . March 7, 1990 edition, p. 20
  4. ↑ Must appear. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used