Break for Wanzka
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Break for Wanzka |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1990 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Vera Loebner |
| script | Jochen Hauser |
| production |
DEFA on behalf of the DFF |
| music | Uwe Hilprecht |
| camera | Peter Brand |
| cut | Thea Richter |
| occupation | |
| |
Pause for Wanzka is a feature film of the DEFA commissioned by the German Television of Vera Loebner from the year 1990 based on the novel break for Wanzka or Travel to Descansar of Alfred Wellm from the year 1968th
action
Gustav Wanzka was a district school councilor for fifteen years and wants to work as a teacher in his beloved profession for a few more years before reaching retirement age. Therefore he asks the public education department in the district for a transfer to a school and when this is not granted to him, he cites health problems. This argument had an impact and Wanzka was sent to the model school in Mierenberg, where he was supposed to teach from September 1961.
On arrival at the train station, he met his future student Norbert Kniep, who surprised him with the question of the dead point when locomotives started up. This interest moves him to take over Norbert's class as class leader, although this is known to be particularly difficult by the students from Domjüch-Mühle. The junior teacher Marlott is to start at school together with Wanzka, but the school has not yet arrived on the first day of class. It is already assumed that she took the last chance to escape to West Berlin. The colleague Seiler also immediately expressed the opinion that he did not want to support the new colleague, should she still arrive. But she came and told Wanzka that she was simply afraid of the task, because teaching was not her dream job. But first of all, both have to join the fishing club, because that is the director's heartfelt desire and therefore a duty.
The colleague Gustav Wanzka gives the impression that he encourages certain indiscipline in his class. He doesn't lump students together and has highly personal views on upbringing and educational goals. He shows a lot of understanding for the students, knows about their worries and needs and does not believe in equalizing educational measures. This ultimately leads to the other teachers having discipline problems in his class while the math class is busy working on. This culminates in two slaps in the face that the student Norbert Kniep receives from the teacher Ms. Manthey. In one of the following teacher conferences, Wanzka is replaced as class leader.
The new class teacher will be the PE teacher, Mr. Seiler, who has meanwhile become engaged to the new teacher Marlott. You want to get married and are about to build your own home. The pupils have nothing more to laugh about and Wanzka has to slowly realize that the exemplary school suppresses any conflicts, including positive ones, from the outset and thereby ultimately educates the pupils to be mediocre. And he has to doubt some of the requirements that he made as a district school councilor for years, which led to leveling and culminated in more or less meaningful campaigns.
Wanzka does not give up on continuing to support Norbert and even wants to register him for the Mathematics Olympiad. Since he is aware of the resistance of his colleagues, he even gives the boy additional German lessons to refute their negative arguments. But there is no point and the boy is not delegated to the Olympics. Only the teacher Marlott recognizes the self-importance of the rest of the teaching staff and even separates from her fiancé. After finishing school, Norbert will probably begin an apprenticeship with the master shoemaker Jerome in Domjüch-Mühle, with whom he has been friends for years.
After four years as a teacher, Wanzka will return to his position as a district school councilor, because his successor wants to be relieved of this position because of the care of his disabled son. The long-planned trip to Descansar on the Baltic Sea has to wait.
production
For several years, Vera Loebner tried to film the material of Alfred Wellm's novel . The arguments against it were that although it is an important story and an important concern, no filming permit can be granted because of the unmistakable and unmistakable criticism of the praised achievements of real socialist education. Vera Loebner only received approval for the film in the summer of 1989. Shooting began on September 6, 1989. The first broadcast took place on April 16, 1990 in the first program of German television .
criticism
At the end of his review, Frank Junghänel summed up everything in three words in the Berliner Zeitung : A film that is well worth seeing.
Klaus M. Fiedler from the Neue Zeit emphasized the acting achievements and said that the characters are drawn exactly, which also corresponds to the attitude of the director, who once said: Stories can only be told about the actors; without their skills, the most beautiful technology, the most brilliant camera, the best artistic intention would not save the subject.
Web links
- Pause for Wanzka in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Break for Wanzka at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung . April 12, 1990, p. 10.
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung. April 17, 1990, p. 4.
- ↑ New times . April 18, 1990, p. 4.