Owl Hollow

Movie
Original title	Owl Hollow
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1969
length	79 minutes
Rod
Director	Walter Beck
script	Horst Beseler , Walter Beck, Günter Kaltofen
production	DEFA
music	Klaus Lenz
camera	Lothar Gerber
cut	Brigitte Krex
occupation
Martin Flörchinger : Grandfather Kalmus Gertrud Brendler : Grandmother Kalmus Rainer Haupt: Jampoll Annette Böttche : Linden tree Regina Beyer : Hilde Manfred Krug : Captain Dieter Vienna : Kohlweis Peter Pollatschek : ABV Herbert Böttcher Nico Turoff : Silent Gotthold Thomas Langhoff : Second Berko Acker : Lieberich Vera Oelschlegel : Railway station supervision

Käuzchenkuhle is a German children's film by Walter Beck from 1969. It is based on the children's book of the same name by Horst Beseler from 1965.

action

Jean-Paul Fontanon, known as Jampoll, comes from Berlin and every year during the summer holidays he goes to Wolfsruh to see his grandparents in the country. But this time everything is different. Grandfather won't pick him up. At the train station he runs into a Mr. Kohlweis who takes him to the village on his bike and greets his grandfather Kalmus. After Jampoll delivers the stranger's greetings, Kalmus is nervous and upset.

Together with his friends screw, Christian and Linde, Jampoll begins to spy on the mysterious Mr. Kohlweis, who now works in a sawmill. They find out that Kohlweis used to be an officer in the SS and that at the end of the Second World War in April 1945 he sank a box of looted art in the nearby Mummelsee . Jampoll's grandfather and the deaf and mute Gotthold were forced to help. They were then supposed to be killed, but were able to flee. They later came back to retrieve the box and to hide it in the owl hollow, which is what the villagers believe is inhabited by ghosts. Gotthold died in the action and drowned, which Jampoll's grandfather never forgave. The box, however, is still in the owl hole and Kohlweis has now returned to fetch the treasure.

Jampoll and his friends report their inquiries to the local section officer . When Kohlweis and a friend come to the Kaeweuzchenkuhle and want to retrieve the container, the police are finally there to arrest both men. Kohlweis is killed in the process.

production

The film is based on the successful youth book of the same name by Horst Beseler from 1965, who, by his own admission, “wanted to deal with the war and war crimes”, and takes place against the historical background of the last days of the Second World War.

Käuzchenkuhle was premiered on January 31, 1969 in Berlin's “Kosmos”. The West German premiere took place on March 12, 1973.

Rainer Haupt in the role of Jampoll was spoken by the Berlin dubbing "child" Bernd Lehmann. The reason for this was that R. Haupt should definitely play the role, but his voice was felt to be unsuitable.

Reviews

• The lexicon of international films described Käuzchenkuhle as "an exciting crime film for children, which includes historical circumstances largely in a non-didactic way and which is not least fascinating because of the character of the detective played by Manfred Krug."

literature

• Ingelore König (ed.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children , Berlin (Henschel) 1996. ISBN 3-89487-234-9

Web links

• Käuzchenkuhle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Käuzchenkuhle at filmportal.de
• Käuzchenkuhle at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Märkische Oderzeitung ( memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) from December 23, 2005
2. ↑ Owl Hollow. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on October 12, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Owl Hollow. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 12, 2016 .