Night workers - Berlin, autumn 73
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Night workers - Berlin, autumn 73 |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 13 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Cohn-Vossen |
| script | Richard Cohn-Vossen |
| production | DEFA studio for short films, KAG "Profile" |
| music |
Klaus Lenz Girolamo Frescobaldi |
| camera | Michael Zausch |
| cut | Ingeborg Marczalek (Assistant) |
| occupation | |
| |
Night workers - Berlin, Autumn 73 is a documentary film of the DEFA studios for short films by Richard Cohn-Vossen from the year 1974 .
action
The film begins with the onset of darkness and the view over the Greifswalder Strasse freight yard , the Dimitroffstrasse gasworks with its gasometers right into the center of Berlin , with the Red City Hall and the Berlin TV tower . While an S-Bahn runs on the tracks between the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum , the voice off tells us that the city looks like a dimly lit aquarium at dusk . Hours of leisure and relaxation have been achieved, precious and longed for. But work continues in the city, light, gas, bread is produced and transports are not resting either. The people who work here are those who have to stay awake at night, the night workers .
The first night worker is an employee of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in a signal box , who is notified by telephone of the next expected trains. Now he carries out the necessary switching operations and watches a train drive past the signal box. These (repetitive) tasks keep him busy all night in addition to his desk work.
The next topic is the production of bread in the baked goods combine Saarbrücker Straße . Here the production of the bread is tracked from the filling of the flour and other ingredients into the kneading machine to the storage of the finished bread for transport. The colleagues who operate the machines and belts and monitor the production process are observed with the camera. But there is also time for a few exchanges among each other.
At the Dimitroffstrasse gasworks, the night shift colleagues greet each other and go to their workplaces. It's hard and dirty work that produces coke in addition to gas. The work steps required for this are shown in detail, especially the sweepers who have to close the filling lids and keep the ceiling clean. But the other workers are not neglected either. They come together again for a break, play cards, eat something and sometimes struggle with tiredness until things go on again.
The fourth station of the night shift visits is the control room of a substation . The colleagues employed here have to do with a problem caused by the Klingenberg thermal power station . Your job is to make sure that there are no interruptions in the city's power supply.
At the end of the night, the camera observes in various places in Berlin how the workers on the early shift make their way to their companies. So photographs are from the tunnel at the station Berlin Storkower road and from the station Berlin Ostkreuz shown. Now the voice comes back from off-screen to express thanks to the night workers with poetic words. Except for these and the words spoken at the beginning, the film lives only from its images and the accompanying music.
production
Nachtarbeiter - Berlin, Herbst 73 was shot as a black and white film by the artistic work group “Profil” and had its premiere on July 5, 1974. This film was shot as the first part of a series of Berlin miniatures , but a sequel cannot be found.
The dramaturgy was in the hands of Annerose Richter .
Web links
- Night worker - Berlin, autumn 73 at filmportal.de
- Night workers - Berlin, autumn 73 at the DEFA Foundation
- Night workers - Berlin, autumn 73 on Progress Film-Verleih
- Night Worker - Berlin, Autumn 73 Introduction to the film by Jeanpaul Goergen on April 9, 2019 in the Zeughauskino in Berlin