Naked Among Wolves (1963)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Naked among wolves |
 | |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 116 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frank Beyer |
| script |
Bruno Apitz , Frank Beyer |
| production | DEFA |
| music | Joachim Werzlau |
| camera | Günter Marczinkowsky |
| cut | Hildegard Conrad |
| occupation | |
| |
Naked Among Wolves is an anti-fascist GDR - feature film by Frank Beyer from 1963. The production of " VEB DEFA -Studio for movies Babelsberg " artistic work group (CISA) "Red Circle" is based on the eponymous novel by Bruno Apitz , the Published by Mitteldeutscher Verlag in 1958 . The literary model was adapted as a film for GDR television as early as 1960 by Georg Leopold . The actors Fred Delmare, Peter Sturm, Wolfram Handel and Angela Brunner were seen in the same roles (sometimes even with the same dialogues) in both films.
The premiere took place on April 10, 1963 in the Berlin Colosseum . Two days later the film adaptation started in the cinemas of the GDR.
In 2015, a remake of the literary original directed by Philipp Kadelbach was shown on German television.
content
The novel is set in the Buchenwald concentration camp between February and April 1945 . A Polish prisoner smuggled a three-year-old child into the camp. The illegal International Camp Committee (ILK), a resistance group made up of communists of different nationalities, decides to transport the child to another camp. The inmates Höfel and Kropinski, who work in the effects room, do not carry out this decision and hide the child. Its discovery by the SS would inevitably result in the child's murder. First it is hidden in the clothes closet, then in a sick barrack. Later it is placed in a pig pen. The child puts the entire resistance movement in danger. However, several inmates take great personal risks to save the child. Höfel and Kropinski are severely tortured for weeks without betraying the child and their comrades. The inmate Pippig is also silent. He dies of severe torture by the Gestapo . The prisoner Rose becomes a traitor out of fear, the prisoner Wurach allows himself to be abused by the SS for spying. In addition, the characters of the SS guards are depicted: Camp leader Schwahl wants to send all prisoners on a death march to Dachau and cover up the traces of the crimes in the camp, Kluttig wants to have all prisoners killed, Reineboth wants to go into hiding and adapt to the new political circumstances, Mandrach , called Mandrill, a brutal torturer, wants to kill his prisoners locked in the block before the end, and Zweiling vacillates between the fear of the prisoners' revenge and his own comrades. When the informant Wurach compiles a death list with 46 names who allegedly run the secret resistance organization, the ILK decides to hide those who are wanted. The elder Kramer is one of the heads of the ILK. Many prisoners respect him because of his personality. In the unclear about the proximity of the front, the ILK has to weigh up again and again between contradicting duties, the protection of the individual and the responsibility for the entirety of the 50,000 prisoners. The first death marches cannot be prevented. When the front is near, the prisoners liberate the camp themselves with weapons they built or smuggled into the camp. They get Höfel and Kropinski out of the bunker. The child is also taken out of hiding. Some of the fictional characters that appear in Apitz's book bear the names of former fellow prisoners of Bruno Apitz, whom the author would like to honor in this way. With the choice of names, Apitz also clarifies the character of each person (for example Hauptscharführer Zweiling ). For the - literarily free, in essential points deviating from the actual events - portrayal of the boy described in the novel, he oriented himself on the story of Stefan Jerzy Zweig, who was brought to Buchenwald at the age of three .
reception
“The author Bruno Apitz himself was in Buchenwald for eight years. That was a good prerequisite for realistic closeness to reality, which the film achieves almost consistently. Only occasionally does a certain pathos interfere, which makes the good seem all too good. The impression of the documentary is also reinforced by the participation of actors of different nationalities who all speak their mother tongue in the film. "
"Beyer went to work here with simplicity and restraint: he was less concerned with the concrete description of the conditions in the Buchenwald concentration camp, but with the fundamental conflict between human compassion and political understanding ..."
“Good Defa film, which, in addition to the formal sense of style, may also contain indirect criticism of the lack of freedom in the eastern zone. Recommended for ages 14 and up. "
Awards
- 1963: Special silver award in the category Best Director : Frank Beyer
- 1963: National Prize 1st class for art and literature for the creative collective: Frank Beyer, Bruno Apitz, Günter Marczinkowsky and Alfred Hirschmeier
- 1964: Heinrich Greif Prize, 1st class for the actors' collective: Gerry Wolff, Herbert Köfer, Erik S. Klein and Wolfram Handel
- other
- Predicate particularly valuable the Film Review Board Wiesbaden
- 1965: Honorary diploma from the Cineparade Melbourne
literature
- Bill Niven : The Buchenwald child. Truth, fiction and propaganda Translated from the English by Florian Bergmeier, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale), 2008, ISBN 978-3-89812-566-6
- Zacharias Zweig: My father, what are you doing here ...? Between Buchenwald and Auschwitz. The report of the Zacharias Zweig dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1987, ISBN 3-7638-0471-4 (report from the father of Stefan Jerzy Zweig)
- Eva Reissland: Bruno Apitz In: Hans Jürgen Geerdts (Hrsg.): Literature of the German Democratic Republic. Individual representations. Volume 1 People and Knowledge, Berlin 1976
Web links
- Naked Among Wolves in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Naked under wolves at filmportal.de (with photo gallery)
- Naked among wolves at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ We are the media city: "Frank Beyer - Regisseur" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.medienstadt.de, accessed February 3, 2016
- ^ Reclams Filmführer, 2.A. 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7
- ^ Gregor, Ulrich: Geschichte des Films, 1968, ISBN 3-570-00816-9
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 50/1965.
