Do you know Urban?

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Do you know Urban?
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1971
length 96 minutes
Rod
Director Ingrid Reschke
script Ulrich Plenzdorf
Ingrid Reschke
production DEFA , KAG "Berlin"
music Rudi Werion
camera Claus Neumann
cut Barbara Simon
occupation

Do you know Urban? is a DEFA German feature film by Ingrid Reschke from 1971 based on authentic stories by Gisela Karau .

action

Hoffi gets to know comrade Urban during a long hospital stay. They both share a room and after initial problems they get along better and better. Above all, Hoffi learns a lot about real life from the surveyor who has already worked in Algeria and Cuba, and that is also necessary, because Hoffi was imprisoned for 1 ½ years for serious bodily harm.

After his discharge from the hospital, Hoffi moves with his club, as his little brother is called in Berlin, from large construction site to large construction site in the GDR in order to find Urban, who has become his role model. But nobody knows him. But on a construction site they get to know the pretty Gila from Berlin, who is doing an internship in a drawing office. Workers are being sought on the construction site, there is also accommodation and so the two Hoffmann brothers stay there. They like their work, they are accepted in the brigade and Hoffi's imprisonment is irrelevant. Not even with Gila, with whom he has now fallen in love. But Hoffi and Keule want to continue, because they have to find Urban, but their colleagues can convince them to stay. The next problem is already waiting, because the upcoming construction site is in Berlin. Hoffi is banned from Berlin, a common punitive measure in the GDR, although this is his home town and his mother lives there. This problem is solved by the management of the construction site.

Hoffi and Keule cannot live in their former room with their mother, because that is occupied by their mother's boyfriend, so they move into a workers' dormitory. Gila's parents do not agree with her connection to Hoffi at all, not even when they find out that she is expecting a child. Angry, Gila leaves her parents, whom she had previously considered generous and tolerant. Now they are both looking for an apartment and, through social forces who see the good in people, are assigned an empty shop that they are expanding. But since Hoffi suddenly sees a problem in a firm bond, he retires to his brother in the dormitory every evening. It also plays a role that he met Urban's wife and visited her at home. Here he learns that he is now working in Vietnam, but also saw the problems that a woman with two children, whose husband is on the assembly line, has.

Keule is now fulfilling his childhood dream and is applying for an apprenticeship at the circus because he has always wanted to do something with animals. When Hoffi finally decides to move in with Gila and to marry her, he receives the draft order for the army. During a party in the shop apartment, where the mood is very depressed, Hoffi suddenly runs to Gila's parents and can convince them to come to the party. Now everything seems to be fine again.

When Hoffi, already in uniform, waits for his train at Berlin's Ostbahnhof, he sees the long-sought Urban, who is on his way to a new construction site, in a train that is already departing. But he doesn't need his help anymore.

production

Do you know Urban? was shot by the artistic working group "Berlin" as a black and white film under the working title Even from problem children , based on the authentic reports from the 1960s by Gisela Karau in the Berlin evening newspaper BZ am Abend , people are shot in total vision . The music was played by the Modern Soul Sextet . The Berlin outdoor shots were shot at the Prenzlauer Berg water tower , Schönhauser Allee and Strausberger Platz , among others .

The film premiered on January 14, 1971 in the Berlin Kino International and was first broadcast on June 13, 1971 in the 1st program of the German TV broadcaster.

criticism

The New Germany found that the audience followed the story with obvious pleasure. This film is a sign that filmmakers are grappling intensively with contemporary conflicts.

Günter Sobe wrote in the Berliner Zeitung that, after the film Berlin - Ecke Schönhauser , which was made many years ago, the film deals with the problems of young people for the first time. They are looking for a role model and find role models, they are looking for urban and find themselves.

The lexicon of international films rated the film in its narrative style as relaxed and entertaining, but found it rather unrealistic in the plot.

Awards

  • 1971: Heinrich Greif Prize 1st class posthumously for Ingrid Reschke (director and screenplay)
  • 1971: Heinrich Greif Prize 1st class for Ulrich Plenzdorf (screenplay)
  • 1971: Posthumous Art Prize of the FDGB for Ingrid Reschke (director and screenplay)
  • 1971: Art Prize of the FDGB for Ulrich Plenzdorf (screenplay)
  • 1971: Art Prize of the FDGB for Claus Neumann (camera)
  • 1971: Art Prize of the FDGB for Rudi Werion (music)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of January 10, 1971, p. 14
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 15, 1971, p. 2
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of January 16, 1971, p. 6
  4. ↑ Do you know Urban? In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used