Land That Speaks My Language (1980)

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Movie
Original title Country that speaks my language
Country of production Germany , Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1980
length 103 minutes
Rod
Director Michael Kehlmann
script Michael Kehlmann
camera Gerhard Hierzer, Alexander Komarek
cut Lotte Klimitschek
occupation

Land That Speaks My Language is a TV film from 1980 based on the short story The Twentieth July by Alexander Lernet-Holenia .

action

1944: The Jewess Suzette Alberti was previously protected by her Aryan husband. But when he dies, two Gestapo officers are standing in front of her door shortly afterwards and want to arrest her. She managed to escape and found shelter with her friend Elisabeth von Josselin, which her husband, Wehrmacht Major Friedrich von Josselin, was not allowed to find out. When he returns from a business trip earlier than expected, Suzette has to be hidden with Elisabeth's father. His housekeeper, Mrs. Koczebrowsky, could reveal this, so Suzette returns to Elisabeth's apartment on Friedrich's next trip. Suzette has been sick since the death of her husband, now she is getting worse and worse and a doctor summoned finds a severe inflammation, because of which Suzette urgently needs to be hospitalized. To save Suzette's life, Elisabeth gives the nurses her own ID when they ask for Suzette's papers - she “lends” the Jewish friend her Aryan identity, so to speak.

However, Suzette dies in the hospital, which is why Elisabeth, who is now officially dead, can no longer leave her father's house. Friedrich was called home by telegram. As a dutiful and honorable soldier, he is initially upset about his wife's behavior. He knows that she has put him in danger too and wants to tell his general everything in order to forestall a discovery. The general is part of the resistance group that is preparing the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 on Adolf Hitler . He now lets Friedrich know about these plans and convinces him to take part. Friedrich receives a marching order with which he is supposed to travel to northern Italy after the assassination attempt and contact the troops there. Elisabeth could then leave with him, but Friedrich should keep quiet about it.

Elisabeth sees only one chance to go abroad: Suzette had told her about a Mr. Bukowsky who lived in the Grand Hotel and could get an exit visa. So she takes on the identity of the late Suzette and visits this gentleman. It turns out that he is an officer in the SD . He can enable Elisabeth to leave for Italy, from where she can make her way to Switzerland, and he wants to be paid for by having sex with Elisabeth. She visits him several times, but holds him out. Bukowsky developed a certain fascination for her, he would now like to travel to Italy with her and agrees if she only sleeps with him there.

When Bukowsky tried to get Elisabeth's passport from the Gestapo, he ran into the officer who wanted to arrest Suzette after her husband's death. So he learns that Elisabeth is not Suzette at all. After finding out her true identity, he has Friedrich arrested on charges of complicity in hiding Suzette. Friedrich is led away by a captain on July 20, 1944 and first brought home, where he is supposed to take off his uniform and then be brought in for interrogation in civilian clothes. He tries unsuccessfully to convince the captain to let him go. On the way to the interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters, they pass Wehrmacht troops that are on their way to occupy and disarm the Gestapo. Friedrich sees this as a sign that the assassination attempt on Hitler was successful, considers himself free again and sets off on foot to see Elisabeth's father. However, he observed what was happening at the Gestapo headquarters and learned that the assassination attempt had failed. The Wehrmacht officers involved have already been arrested and are now being shot one after the other. Elisabeth and her father therefore suspect that Friedrich is also dead, whereupon Elisabeth agrees to leave for Italy with Bukowsky that same evening. Friedrich arrives too late when Elisabeth is already on the way to the train station.

The Gestapo officer who obtained Bukowsky the visa learns that Friedrich is not among the executed officers. He therefore believes that Bukowsky had him arrested by the SD as a precaution to protect him. Out of antipathy towards Bukowsky, but also out of competition between the two authorities (Gestapo and SD), he now wants to arrest Bukowsky. He was already sitting on the train with Elisabeth when his name was called out. He wants to resist the arrest, shoots the Gestapo officer and is shot at the same time by another officer.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth is sitting alone in the train, and suddenly Friedrich, who was believed dead, is standing in the compartment door. Thanks to the marching orders from his general, both can now flee to Italy together.

title

The title of the film comes from the poem Des Fremdlings Abendlied by Georg Philipp Schmidt von Lübeck , which was set to music by Franz Schubert under the title The Wanderer . The motif of longing and homelessness echoed in the poem mirrors the situation of the resistance fighters under National Socialism: the longing for a better future and the feeling of homelessness in their own country.

production

The film is a co-production by ARD and ORF and was broadcast for the first time in 1980. It is the second film adaptation of the story The Twentieth July by Alexander Lernet-Holenia based on a black and white television film of the same name from 1959, also directed by Michael Kehlmann.

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