Krabat (1977)

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Movie
German title Krabat
Original title Čarodějův učeň
Country of production Czechoslovakia
original language Czech
Publishing year 1977
length 80 minutes
Rod
Director Karel Zeman
script Karel Zeman
production Karel Hutěčka
music František Belfín
camera Bohuslav Pikhart, Zdeněk Krupa
cut Ivan Matouš
synchronization

Krabat (in the Czech original Čarodějův učeň ) is a flat-figure animation film from 1977. The film is based on the novel Krabat by Otfried Preußler and the old Sorbian folk tale of the good magician Krabat . Directed by Karel Zeman .

It was the first film adaptation of Krabat after Preußler, after The Black Mill after Jurij Brězan had been filmed by GDR television two years earlier . In 2008 a real film was made, which also bears the title Krabat .

action

The young tramp Krabat wanders through Lusatia until one winter he looks for shelter in a barn with two other beggars. Together they beg for a little food as carolers . One night he follows a raven who calls him to the mill by the black water and promises him that he would live better there. Once there, Krabat becomes the master of the mill's apprentice. Eleven other, older apprentices are employed in the mill, the oldest by the name of Tonda. From now on he has to work hard in the mill and once tried to escape after a severe punishment from the master, but in the end he managed to get back to the mill. He befriends Tonda and soon learns that he has gotten into a magic mill. After his probationary period, he is accepted as a student of the master and, like the others, learns magic spells from the master, who reads them from the Koraktor , a magic book. They learn to transform themselves into animals, often ravens, and also to use their magic to cheat the people of the country out of the money they bring to their master. On one of his missions at Easter, Krabat meets the young Kantorka ("cantor"), who goes to the fountain singing, and falls in love with her. But he must not break away from his master.

In the next winter at Christmas there is a magic duel between Tonda and the master, because Tonda has finished learning and there can only be one master. The old master wins with a trick and Tonda is killed. The mill wheel stops, it will only turn again as soon as the apprentices are twelve again, as it did after Krabat's arrival. And soon a new beggar comes to the mill, Witko, who joins the line as the youngest. He too first works in the mill and is then accepted as a student. Krabat befriends him and they help each other out. At Easter, Krabat visits the Kantorka again, evoking the wrath of his master. He tries to torture the two of them again and again on their missions, while Krabat finds out that the apprentice Juro is not as stupid as he claims to be. Night after night both secretly, transformed into mice, sneak into the black chamber and illegally read from the Koraktor themselves in order to be superior to the master. Finally it is Christmas again and this time too the old master defeats the apprentice who has been promoted to the oldest student after Tonda's death and who has to die thereupon.

But Krabat now openly opposes his master. He escapes again and again to see the singer and secretly learns from the Koraktor, in which he reads that love is stronger than any magic. But he can't do anything with that at first. The master sends him on a new assignment; Krabat is supposed to help the emperor's army against the Turks. In the fight there he meets another wizard, whom he seriously injures and who then reveals himself to be Juro. Master wanted both of them to kill each other. When Krabat now wants to take action against the master, he cannot defeat him. But, called by Juro, the singer comes to help. The master sets her the task of blindfolded recognizing her loved one among the apprentices. When she succeeds against the master's expectations, the master dies, the mill goes up in flames and the magic vanishes.

Production and publication

The film was produced in 1977 by Krátký-Film and Studio Gottwaldov, directed by Karel Zeman, who also wrote the screenplay. The music was composed by Frantíšek Belfin. Südfunk Stuttgart, Bavaria Film GmbH and Československý Filmexport were involved in the production.

Krabat has been translated into Japanese, French, Finnish and Hungarian, among others. The ARD showed the film on March 24, 1978 in the FRG, on September 7, 1979 it came under the title Krabat - The Magician's Apprentice in GDR cinemas. Krabat appeared on video in April 2000 . A DVD edition was released in January 2011.

synchronization

role German speaker (East) German speaker (West)
Krabat Joachim Siebenschuh Christian Brückner
master Horst Kempe Friedrich Schuetter

reception

Josef Schnelle writes in film-dienst 1979 about a complicated plot that is unsuitable for smaller children in its gloomy representation. The film is implemented "virtuoso" in parts, which is particularly evident in the transformation scenes. The mistake of a “hectic action dramaturgy” was not made. The abstract moral at the end is that love is superior to black magic.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krabat in the Kabeleins Film Lexicon
  2. ^ Josef Schnelle in the film service, issue 13/1979

Web links