Pugowitza

Movie
Original title	Pugowitza
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1981
length	101 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Jürgen Brauer
script	Heiner Carow Jürgen Brauer
production	DEFA , KAG "Johannisthal"
music	Günther Fischer
camera	Jürgen Brauer
cut	Evelyn Carow
occupation
Axel Griesau : Heinrich Habermann Szymon Szurmiej : Komarek Käthe Reichel : Mother Kriepsch Karla Runkehl : Mrs. Sagoreit Viola Schweizer : Mrs. Kirsch Ursula Christowa-Staack : Mrs. Puwalewski Jörg Gillner : Puwalewski Beatrix Hädrich : 1st daughter of the Puwalewskis Martina Redlich : 2nd daughter of the Puwalewskis Annette Sy : 3rd daughter of the Puwalewskis Kurt Böwe : Berniko Heide Kipp : Mrs. Berniko Rolf Hoppe : Administrator Hopf Jörg Panknin : "Spaniard" Albert Marek Probosz : Wojtek, young Pole Peter Welz : National Comrade Vasily K. Mishchenko : Nikolai Gennadi B. Skarga : Leonid Sergei I. Gasarov : Mishka Nikolai G. Lokoschko : Novikow Susanne Herberg : Sabina Ralf Naumann : Otwin Carin Abicht : young woman Binia pouch : 1st twin sister Karin Beutel : 2nd twin sister Ellis Heiden : Old woman Gertraut Last : Nun Gisa Stoll : Mrs. Rautenberg

Pugowitza is a German literary film adaptation of DEFA by Jürgen Brauer from 1981 . It is based on Alfred Wellm's novel Pugowitza or The Silver Key Watch .

action

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , people from the villages flee from the Russians and headed west. Among them is the eleven-year-old boy Heinrich. His father died in the war and his mother just passed away. He joins a small trek led by the old fisherman Komarek. On their way they are followed by a one-legged boy who pretends to have been wounded in the war. During an overnight stay in a barn, however, Heinrich sees that he has two healthy legs and wants to warn Komarek about the “traitor”. However, another woman on the trek has already notified soldiers who will execute the young man a short time later. Heinrich is plagued by remorse, but Komarek acquits him from any accusation of having caused the boy's death. He also removes Heinrich's belief in the final victory and the fear of the Russians, with whom he even fraternized at the end of the First World War . He teaches him various words, including the translation of the word "button", "Pugowitza".

In one village, Heinrich loses touch with the group. Unlike the villagers, he does not flee, but expects the Russians. Shortly before, he saw the farmer Berniko burying his grain by sacks. The Russians take Heinrich with amusement. Only Commandant Nikolai initially insulted Heinrich as a Nazi, especially since he wanted to cut the red flag on the church tower. Only when Nikolai notices that Heinrich has lost both parents is he accepted into the army group. He is bathed and dressed in Russian clothes. With a Soviet cap and on the horse of the soldier Mishka, he brings the frightened villagers back from the woods to their homes. To make Nikolai happy, he lets the villagers raise red flags and arrest the estate inspector Hopf, who beat Poles who were once captured and who stole from him. Both are quietly and reproachfully undone.

However, the occupation of the village is short-lived. Soon a communist is wanted for the office of mayor, but the only communist in the village has long since left. Heinrich is now looking for Komarek, who once fought for the Russians. He finds him, but Komarek points out that he is not a communist. He's just a simple fisherman and doesn't want to take over the mayor's office. Nevertheless, he is appointed mayor of the village by the Russians. He can only speak poorly and his attempt to collect milk from the villagers and distribute it fairly to everyone as well as the townspeople has met with little acceptance. As a friend of the Russians, Heinrich is beaten by the village children. He befriends the sensitive, art-loving boy Otwin, who is ill and dies a little later. Komarek finds his favorite activity in eel fishing and often goes out on the lake with Heinrich. Heinrich can exchange several smoked eels in Berlin for fishing twine and hooks on the black market, and he and Komarek dream of fishing their own. Komarek, however, is slowly withdrawing from everyday village life, as his lack of assertiveness is beginning to displease the Russians too. One day Heinrich finds the injured Albert not far from Komarek's house, who was active in the Spanish Civil War and is therefore only called the "Spaniard". He takes him into Komarek's house, which the young woman Kirsch, who fled the war, came to shortly afterwards. Mrs. Kirsch and Albert fall in love and want to get married. They want to go to Berlin as a family with Heinrich and Komarek, but Komarek refuses, but realizes that he cannot offer Heinrich a good future. In a forgiving way, he organizes a big engagement party for Albert and Mrs. Kirsch with lots of smoked eel. In the middle of the party, he suddenly disappeared. Heinrich runs after him and finds him on his way out of the village. Heinrich lets him go crying, but receives a silver key watch from him as a souvenir when he leaves.

production

Pugowitza was the directorial debut of cameraman Jürgen Brauer, who stepped in for the originally planned director Heiner Carow . The costumes for the film were created by Ursula Strumpf , the buildings were designed by Dieter Adam . The film premiered on March 26, 1981 in the Berlin Kino International and was shown in GDR cinemas the following day. On May 8, 1983, it was shown for the first time on DFF 1 on GDR television.

Actor Szymon Szurmiej was dubbed by Kurt Böwe . Kurt Böwe, who plays the landowner Berniko in the film, was in turn dubbed by Dieter Franke .

criticism

Renate Holland-Moritz called the film in 1981 “quite impressive, downright masterful in terms of composition. Unfortunately, the discrepancy between optics and acoustics cannot be ignored, namely when the poetry of the pictures is occasionally overwhelmed by loud, even shrill tones. "

For the film service , Pugowitza was "a literary film adaptation that endeavors to carefully portray the milieu and character drawings, but stylistically inconsistent in the fusion of fiction and reality."

Award

In the GDR, the film received the rating “valuable”.

literature

• F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 466-467 .

Web links

• Pugowitza in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Pugowitza at filmportal.de
• Pugowitza at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 467 .
2. ^ Renate Holland-Moritz: Pugowitza . In: Renate Holland-Moritz: The owl in the cinema. New movie reviews . Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin 1994, p. 27.
3. ^ Pugowitza. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
4. ↑ See progress-film.de  ( 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.