Sky without stars
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Sky without stars |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1955 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helmut Käutner |
| script | Helmut Käutner |
| production |
NDF , Munich ( Harald Braun ) |
| music | Bernhard Eichhorn |
| camera | Kurt Hasse |
| cut | Anneliese Schönnenbeck |
| occupation | |
| |
Sky Without Stars is a German film drama by Helmut Käutner from 1955, one of the few screen productions of those years that have the German division as a central theme. The multiple award-winning film gave the young stars Erik Schumann , Horst Buchholz and Eva Kotthaus their breakthrough.
action
In divided Germany 1953: The young East German Anna Kaminski, a seamstress in the state-owned company , lives in Thuringia , right on the inner-German border. Their son Jochen, whose father died in the war , is forced to live with his grandparents Elsbeth and Otto Friese in Bavaria , only a few kilometers away from the inner-German border. Elsbeth and Otto, sated and barely empathic , middle-class representatives of the West German economic miracle , were once only willing to help Anna if she would give her child to the Frieses for adoption in order to spare Jochen the supposed "shame" of illegitimate origin (for her fallen son is the child's father). Since Anna has to look after her old grandparents in the East, she is reluctant to go to the West for good and agreed to the demand. And so if Anna wants to see Jochen regularly, she has to secretly cross the border every time.
While crossing the border, she meets the Bavarian border police officer Carl Altmann. He has a big heart and promises Anna to bring her son Jochen to her in the east. During the subsequent border crossings, Anna and Carl get to know each other better and better and fall in love. The only way to meet in one place from now on is an abandoned train station between the borders.
Anna has decided to take Jochen with her to the east; one night she secretly leaves the Frieses house with him. Carl arranged for his buddy, Willi Becker, to hide them both in the storage boxes of his truck and bring them across the border with their belongings. But Jochen slips out of the box unnoticed and runs to a carousel that is set up at the border station. Now Anna is back in the east and Carl, initially without his knowledge, with Jochen in the west. A passerby picks up the crying child at the border station; Carl recognizes Jochen and takes him into his care. He plans to bring the boy back to his mother for good - not without danger for him, as he is also highly endangered by such actions.
At one of the secret meetings in the old train station, Anna is visibly ill. Carl wants to run into town to get a doctor, but he is caught and arrested by Russian border guards. Anna is also discovered and arrested in the West. Carl's guard, VoPo Bröse, signals to Carl that he is ready to let him escape if he can help him get a well paid post in the West German border troop. Carl agrees and can escape. Anna, now well again, leaves a message with Carl's landlords, Carl a message in the east: You should come to the agreed meeting point - however, you happen to meet again at the train station that same night.
Anna's doubts about life in the East are not changed by her encounter with the young Soviet soldier Mischa Bjelkin, who, quite differently than expected, is extremely human. On the face of it, his love is only for regular chess games with Anna's grandfather. When he is transferred, Anna asks him for a pass for herself and her son in order to be able to cross the border regularly, to look after the grandparents in the east and to see Carl in the west. But Anna's love for Carl and the hopelessness that creeps over her when she imagines a life in the GDR make the seamstress finally decide to flee to the West. She wants to make a fresh start in the Federal Republic with her son and Carl. In a final desperation, she can convince her grandfather to leave the East and his long-cherished, laboriously paid parental home.
On the crucial night, Willi Becker waits at the agreed meeting point and takes the clothes and other belongings into the truck, Jochen is hidden in the car. Like their grandparents elsewhere, Carl and Anna want to cross the border on foot. To be on the safe side, Willi gives Carl his pistol. On the way, Misha crosses the path of the two lovers. He calls Anna unsuccessfully and rides his bike after them. They flee to an old ammunition factory. Misha arrives there too. In the dark, Carl panics and shoots Misha, who is handling his MP. This is fatally hit; in his hand he holds the permit for Anna and her son.
Carl and Anna continue to flee, are discovered by Russian border guards. They are shot at and an alarm is triggered. Carl is hit and lies - already in the west - dying. The West German border guards also pay attention and shoot at their opponents and everything that moves. Anna sees Carl lying, turns around and is fatally hit from the west. Both lie on the floor with outstretched arms, their hands just can't touch.
background
The shooting took place between July 13th and September 12th, 1955. Filming locations were among others Ludwigsstadt , Naila , Töpen and Wolfratshausen . The studio recordings were made in the Bavaria studio in Geiselgasteig . Hans Berthel and Robert Stratil created the film structures, Georg Richter was production manager.
The film premiered on October 14, 1955 in Nuremberg and was approved by the FSK for viewers aged 12 and over. The TV first broadcast took place on December 19, 1963 on ZDF .
Sky Without Stars was the only German contribution to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 . The festival committee had the film canceled before it was shown because of the alleged harm to the feelings of other nations. The reason for the disqualification of the film was probably the protest of the German government against the nomination of the Auschwitz documentary Night and Fog by Alain Resnais .
Awards
- The FBL awarded the film the title valuable .
- Starless sky was in 1956 together with the devil in silk , the German Film Award . The film tape in silver went to the actors Eva Kotthaus ( best young actress ), who until then had filmed exclusively for DEFA , Horst Buchholz ( best young actor ) and Erich Ponto ( best supporting role ).
- The film was recommended as "best film of the month" (November 1955) by the Evangelical Film Guild.
- Bambi 1956 for the "artistically best German film 1956"
Reviews
Curt Riess ' memento book 'There's only one time' called the film, on the one hand, “a somewhat trivial story - but the reality in Germany today is so trivial, so banal.” Riess commented positively on the elaboration of the individual characters: “ In the background a couple of exquisitely seen figures. The already fed up Westerners who the brothers in the East almost wrote off. A Russian soldier with a good heart. A truck driver from Berlin who knows all the water. As a Russian, the very young Horst Buchholz - he has hardly ever filmed - is a little sensation. As a chauffeur, Georg Thomalla finally shows that he can do more than make fuss. Wonderful in other small roles: Gustav Knuth, Camilla Spira, Erich Ponto. Only the lovers remain a little pale. "
In Heinrich Fraenkel 's 'Immortal Film' one can read: “A film about two people whose love happiness breaks at the zone boundary, which is no less shocking because of the sincerity of its statement than because of its strong drama.” At another point, Fraenkel also addresses individual actor performances: “ The fact that Käutner brought the leading actress Eva Kotthaus from the East for Sky Without Stars was not only symbolic in a sense, but also enriched the film with a significant acting performance. Lucie Höflich and Erich Ponto remain unforgettable in the roles of grandparents. Die Höflich played the already somewhat crazy old woman, in whose poor head the ghostly reality of the present no longer enters, because the no less ghostly unreality of the past remained alive - that was deeply felt and the mature art of a great actress. "
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: "Excellent photographs, well played, but unequal in design and burdened with a pretentious dialogue."
The film's large personal lexicon called the film an "East-West problem piece".
Web links
- Sky without stars in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Sky without stars at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , pp. 519 f.
- ^ René Ruppert: Helmut Käutner. Dreams of freedom and contemporary politics , Berlin 2018, page 239
- ↑ ibid.
- ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film . The great chronicle. From the first tone to the colored wide screen. Munich 1957, p. 439
- ↑ Immortal Film, p. 194
- ^ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films , Volume 3, S. 1618. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 4: H - L. Botho Höfer - Richard Lester. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 324.