Jan on the barge
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Jan on the barge |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1986 |
| length | 84 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helmut Dziuba |
| script | Helmut Dziuba Hans Albert Pederzani |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Berlin" |
| music | Christian Steyer |
| camera | Helmut Bergmann |
| cut | Barbara Simon |
| occupation | |
| |
January on the Zille is a German children's film of the DEFA of Helmut Dziuba from the year 1986 . The film adaptation is based on the story of the same name by Auguste Lazar .
action
Germany at the end of 1933: 13-year-old Jan, who has lost his mother, grows up with his aunt. He has been in correspondence with his father Karl for a year and finally leaves to meet him in Bitterholm. The father wants to pick him up at the train station, but he does not appear. Nobody opens the door at the address of the father and a neighbor indicates that Jan's father received what he deserves. When Jan notices that a man he has already seen at the train station is following him, he escapes to the nearest police station. There it becomes clear that the man chasing him belongs to the police. Jan's father is wanted by the police because he is suspected of having murdered an SA man on December 16. His trail is lost on the water, where his jacket was found, in it the last letter from Jan.
Shortly before Christmas, Jan returns to his aunt, who is now being watched suspiciously in the village because her brother is considered a murderer. Jan's mother was Czech, his father was a communist and Jan is therefore considered an outsider by Hitlerite youth. Only the older boy Max, who is in a resistance group and enables the persecuted to escape to the east, helps Jan. It is also he who makes it clear to Jan that his father could not have been a murderer: when the murder happened, the father was not in town at all, but helped to bring someone who had been persecuted to safety. The SA wanted to cover up a murder in its own ranks and hang a communist on it. Jan could only reveal more about the fate or whereabouts to Hermann, the man on the barge . Since Jan remains skeptical, Max takes him, contrary to the regulations, to the man hidden in a forest hut near the Czech border, whom his father had saved. He confirms Max's report. A short time later, the hiding place was surrounded by SA men. The man and Max are shot while Jan escapes.
He goes to the Elbe, where he thinks he sees the man described on the barge. When trying to cross over to the Zille Erika , Jan's boat sank and he is pulled onto the barge by the boatswain. Only days later, Jan comes to again. The girl Erika, daughter of the Hitler-loyal shipowner Wiese, is sitting by his bed. The boatswain, on the other hand, introduces himself to Jan as Martin Liebig, but when asked by Hermann, says his name is Hermann Martin Liebig. The ship's crew is considered to be loyal to the line and so the police do not search it looking for Jan. Wiese, who comes on board later, wants to betray Jan, but Martin makes it clear to him that he and Erika will also be betrayed. Jan stays on board as Martin's alleged nephew, but does not learn anything about his father except that he is a good person. When the mysterious professor comes on board who gives Erika tuition, Jan believes that Erika could help him. He had previously heard that Martin was not the man he was looking for on the barge and that he only played something for the boy out of pity. The professor, however, seems to be on good terms. He is really a communist who was turned into a spy by the Nazis. The alcoholic finally gets drunk on board when the barge is anchored in Magdeburg and threatens to betray everyone on board to the police. The barge casts off and Jan finally pushes the drunk into the Elbe; the professor is drowning. Wiese and Martin want to spread the word that the alcoholic went overboard while drunk unnoticed by the others.
In the end, Jan confides in another tugboat that he has seen earlier. He turns out to be a contact who takes him to his father on another ship. With it he drives back upstream at the end.
production
Jan auf der Zille is considered to be the end of Dziuba's “proletarian trilogy” of historical children's films, which began with the children's films Rotschlipse and Als Unku Ede's girlfriend was set in the Weimar Republic . The film was based on motifs from the story of the same name by Auguste Lazar.
Jan auf der Zille had its premiere on March 26, 1986 in the Berlin Colosseum and was shown in GDR cinemas on March 28, 1986. On December 5, 1986 it was shown in the cinemas of the Federal Republic of Germany and was shown for the first time on German television on November 16, 1988 on ARD.
The film costumes were created by Elke Hersmann , the buildings are by Heinz Röske . Child actor Peter Scholz (Jan) was 12 years old at the time of shooting, Helene Anders (Erika) was 13.
criticism
Contemporary critics praised Jan auf der Zille as Dziuba's best film to date, which “ties in with the good Babelsberg tradition of anti-fascist issues [...] Seldom has the atmosphere of fear and threat among the Nazis been conveyed as impressively as here, despite all the reluctance. Seldom has the milieu of that time been shown so coherently and genuinely on film down to the last detail. Just as convincing is the psychological accuracy with which [the authors] tell their story: sparingly with words, firmly trusting mere looks and gestures ”. Renate Holland-Moritz called the film a masterpiece and described it as an "enormously exciting, intimate psychological play, peppered with unexpected surprises, about a boy's search for his father."
The "pictures of harsh poetry, scenes that radiate a peculiar calm with strong inner drama and unexpectedly generate deep involvement in a different fate" were emphasized.
For the service-movie was in January on the Zille a "historic detail and sensitively staged children's film, which seriously by children of persecuted parents during the Nazi period, but reflects the psychological stress also exciting."
Cinema called the film “carefully researched”, other critics described it as “a convincing example from today's point of view [...] on the history of National Socialism and resistance, stimulating and comprehensible not only for young viewers.” “Helmut Dziuba demands his young viewers [ …] A lot - but not too much, ”is how other reviewers assessed the suitability of the film for children.
Awards
At the 4th Children's Film Festival in Essen, Jan received the Blue Elephant in 1986. At the Golden Spatz 1987 in Gera, the film was awarded the main prize in the feature film category.
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 284-285 .
- Jan on the barge . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89487-234-9 , pp. 349-351.
Web links
- January on the Zille in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jan on the Zille at filmportal.de
- Jan on the Zille at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Jan auf der Zille in the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ Heinz Kersten: Childhood in difficult times . In: Der Tagesspiegel , Berlin, May 11, 1986.
- ^ Renate Holland Moritz: Cinema Owl . In: Eulenspiegel , 1986; quoted to: Jan on the barge . In: Renate Holland-Moritz: The owl in the cinema. New movie reviews . Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin 1994, p. 93.
- ^ Gisela Hoyer in: Morgen , April 6, 1986.
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ↑ Jan on the barge . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, p. 351.
- ↑ Ute Semkat in: People's Voice Magdeburg , April 17 1986th
- ↑ See progress-film.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
