Gundermann - End of the Iron Age
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Gundermann - End of the Iron Age |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Engel |
| script | Richard Engel |
| production | Richard Engel Buschfunk |
| music | Gerhard Gundermann |
| camera | Uwe Mann |
| cut |
Susanne Carpentier Steffen Görner |
Gundermann - End of the Iron Age is a documentary film by Richard Engel / Buschfunk production by Richard Engel from 1999.
action
When Gerhard (Gundi) Gundermann told his friend and director of this film that his open-cast mine was being closed, Richard Engel decided to continue the film portrait of Gundi Gundermann , which was shot in 1981 . On a December day in 1996 he drove to the Scheibe opencast mine , where only a few days of work awaited the excavator driver. Here Gundi said that it was very difficult for him to say goodbye after 20 years in this job. He was alone on his excavator, was able to pursue his thoughts, here he drafted his lyrics and considered his further artistic paths.
His former director reported that one of the main reasons why Gundermann was expelled from the SED was the difficulties he and the cultural group Brigade Feuerstein caused the comrades. A look back shows the Feuerstein Brigade , which contributed to the revitalization of cultural life in Hoyerswerda , but which collapsed after disputes. This did not prevent the group from celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding together in 1998, not without remembering that Gundi was the engine of the brigade, who kept pushing them to new heights, until some of the demands were too high. He then looked for a long time for a new band , until after several unsuccessful attempts he performed together with other musicians as Gundermann & Seilschaft in 1992 . His biggest problem was to market himself, which had a particular effect in the west of Germany, since he did not achieve the level of acquaintance desired by managers and band. Anything to do with commerce was alien to him.
At the beginning of 1997 Gundi became unemployed, it was the longest vacation he had ever had. But his artistic work was paralyzed without work, so he decided to retrain as a carpenter. He liked wood because it was part of nature, he just didn't want to be filmed during his training. During this time he also visited the scrap yard for the disused technology of the surrounding opencast mines one last time. Here he once again expressed his thoughts about the necessity of this form of energy generation and about his long way of saying goodbye to dredging. Afterwards only recordings of his concerts were made until he died of a sudden brain hemorrhage in 1998. Pictures of the funeral show the great popularity of the artist and excavator driver. But without Gundi's cooperation, the director Richard Engel found it pointless to continue the shooting and he decided to break off the film. At the funeral service after the funeral, those present talked about what they had experienced together over the past few years, what prompted us to continue working on the film, where friends and colleagues were able to express their opinions on what moved them after Gundi's death.
Then another topic came up in the film - the collaboration between Gerhard Gundermann and the Ministry for State Security (MfS). With the exception of Tamara Danz , who could no longer express herself, all those questioned were ready to deal with his motives and, knowing his political attitudes at the time, largely forgive him for this step. The fact that he ended his collaboration with the MfS himself in 1982 played a major role. But he was resented for not revealing himself to friends earlier.
The last section of the film was a small glimpse into Gundi's private life, which he always tried to avoid during his lifetime. Friends revealed, however, that his seldom sung lyrics could provide information about this if you listened carefully. His wife Cornelia, who already confessed her love for him to the film team in the first part of this portrait from 1981 and whom he then married, told us something about his relationship with his father, his love for the house he bought and his love for his children.
As in the first film, Gundi Gundermann, you can hear a lot of his songs again.
Production and publication
Gundermann - End of the Iron Age was shot as a color film with the support of the Thuringia Cultural Film Fund . The original collaboration with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) was broken off due to differences of opinion about the design of the film. The final production costs were taken over by Buschfunk-Musikverlag, so that in early 1999 the premiere in the Berlin Volksbühne could take place in front of a full house.
In this work, many excerpts from the film Gundi Gundermann are used, which can be seen in black and white for better delimitation .
The texts of the songs performed come from Gerhard Gundermann.