Roland Graef

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Roland Gräf (born October 13, 1934 in Meuselbach ; † May 11, 2017 in Potsdam ) was a German film director , screenwriter and cameraman who was one of DEFA's most important directors .

Life

Roland Gräf completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk , then earned his university entrance qualification at the workers and farmers faculty in Jena and studied camera at the German Academy for Film Art in Babelsberg from 1954 to 1959 .

From 1960 he worked in the DEFA studio for feature films ; from the mid-1960s he played a key role in shaping the camera style of poetic realism ( born in 45 ) , which was an important means of expressing reality for a group of young directors.

In 1970 he made his directorial debut with My dear Robinson , a contemporary portrait of young people. With his films about the reality of the GDR he received a lot of attention at home and abroad. In 1978 he received the main prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for his film Die Flucht , which dealt with a taboo topic in the GDR, the escape from the GDR . In the 1980s he turned to historical subjects with three films (Fariaho , House on the River , Fallada - Last Chapter) , for which, however, the tension between adaptation and resistance, which shaped the late GDR more and more clearly, was the actual narrative.

From 1985 until the privatization of the studio and the dismissal of the artistic staff, Roland Gräf was chairman of the artistic council. In 1991 he took part in the Berlinale competition for the third time with The Tango Player ( Haus am Fluss 1986, Fallada - last chapter 1988) , and for this film he received the Federal Film Prize in the same year . The Trace of the Amber Room in 1992 was his last cinema film, after which he was unable to make three books that were ready to shoot.

In 1997 he set up the media-specific drama course at HFF Konrad Wolf in Babelsberg , which he headed until 2001. Since it was founded in 1998, Roland Gräf was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the DEFA Foundation (until 2005).

Roland Gräf lived with his wife, the screenwriter Christel Gräf, in Potsdam-Babelsberg and in Fläming . In October 2009 the Filmmuseum Potsdam showed a selection of his photographic works under the title Fläming-Bilder . He died on May 11, 2017 after a serious illness.

Filmography (selection)

As a cameraman

As a director

Awards (selection)

  • 1968: The seventh year: Heinrich Greif Prize
  • 1977/78: Escape : Main Prize IFF Karlovy Vary, GDR Critic Prize for the best contemporary film, Heinrich Greif Prize
  • 1979/80: PS: GDR Critics 'Prize, special prize 23rd Authors' Film Festival Sanremo, 1st prize IFF Quito
  • 1980: Art Prize of the GDR
  • 1982: Märkische Research: GDR Critics' Prize, Findlings Prize of the film clubs, Theodor Fontane Prize of the Potsdam district
  • 1986: The house on the river: Main prize ex aequo National Feature Film Festival Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 1986: National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class for art and literature
  • 1988: Fallada - last chapter: main prize at the National Feature Film Festival Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 1991: The Tango Player: I. Prize IFF Bergamo, Federal Film Prize: Filmband in Silver
  • 2013: Prize of the DEFA Foundation for services to German film

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ines Walk: Gräf, Roland. In: defa.de . May 2017, accessed May 2017 on 15 .
personal data
SURNAME Count, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director, screenwriter and cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Meuselbach , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 2017
Place of death Potsdam , Brandenburg , Germany