Sun seeker
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Sun seeker |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Konrad Wolf |
| script |
Paul Wiens , Karl Georg Egel |
| production | DEFA |
| music | Joachim Werzlau |
| camera | Werner Bergmann |
| cut | Christa Wernicke |
| occupation | |
| |
Sonnensucher is a DEFA film by Konrad Wolf , completed in 1958 , which, however, was only released in GDR cinemas in 1972 due to its critical portrayal of the uranium mining of SDAG Wismut . This makes it one of DEFA's banned films . The film is about the conflicts between the Soviet management and the German workers and communists, some of whom were involuntarily called up for labor service.
action
The uranium mining of SDAG Wismut , operated under the cover name "Wismutbergbau", brings together numerous people of different characters in a small area in the Ore Mountains . This also includes the two women Lotte and Emmi from Berlin , who were picked up in a raid there and are now supposed to prove themselves in the mining industry .
Lotte is an orphan who, like Emmi, earned her living by prostitution . Lotte falls in love with the miner Günter, with whom she moves in. He turns out to be not very sensitive and so she leaves him. Two other men are courting her: the Soviet engineer Sergei loves her; his wife was murdered by the Germans in World War II . Also Obersteiger Franz Beier courting her has indeed renounced its fascist past, but does not want to confess before Sergei about his past.
Lotte marries Franz because he is the first man who really respects her, but in the end she realizes that she actually loves Sergej.
background
After the end of the Second World War , the nuclear arms race took place because the Soviet Union wanted to catch up with the United States' nuclear lead and the associated world military supremacy. The greatest obstacle, however, turned out to be the fact that there was not enough usable uranium ore available, but there were larger deposits in Bohemia and the neighboring Saxony. However, these deposits were occupied by the Americans, who withdrew from the occupied territories in June 1945, assuming they would not hand over weapons-grade uranium to the class enemy. A short time later, the Soviet Union secured uranium production in Bohemia and from 1946 also began mining uranium ore in the Saxon Ore Mountains. The working conditions were initially catastrophic and were often reminiscent of a labor camp with conscripts.
On May 10, 1947, the Wismut stock corporation was formed, which included all uranium mines in the Soviet occupation zone and was under Soviet leadership. The later GDR was one of the most important uranium producers in the world after the United States and Canada.
The exterior shots were shot mainly in Johanngeorgenstadt , where uranium mining stopped in 1956 and a large part of the historic old town was demolished. Some of the daytime facilities , especially around the train station, were set up as backdrops for the recordings .
Prohibition of the film
For reasons of foreign policy, the showing of the film was banned by the SED in 1958. The first screening took place on September 1, 1972, but the film was broadcast on March 27, 1972 on East German television.
Reviews
"An interesting contemporary document with a dense atmosphere in the description of the mining milieu."
Web links
- Sonnensucher in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Sun seeker at filmportal.de
- Sun seeker at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heike Schneider: "The Sun Seeker" - A Konrad Wolf Biography. In: deutschlandfunkkultur.de. May 23, 2005. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke: Trace of Films: Contemporary Witnesses on DEFA . In: DEFA Foundation series of publications . Ch. Links, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 , pp. 129–132 ( gugelbuch [accessed September 20, 2017]).
- ↑ Sunseeker. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 18, 2017 .