Stars (movie)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Stars Звезди |
| Country of production |
GDR Bulgaria |
| original language |
German Bulgarian Ladino |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Konrad Wolf |
| script | Angel Wagenstein |
| production |
DEFA , Berlin Studio for Feature Films , Sofia |
| music | Simeon Pironkov |
| camera | Werner Bergmann |
| cut | Christa Wernicke |
| occupation | |
| |
Stars , Bulgarian original title Звезди , is a German - Bulgarian feature film by Konrad Wolf from 1959. The DEFA film is considered to be the first German film to deal with the responsibility of Germans in the Holocaust . In 1995 it was voted one of the 100 most important German films.
action
A small German-occupied village in Bulgaria in 1943: Wehrmacht sub-officer Walther supervises the civilian workers in a motor vehicle workshop, but the former painter prefers to draw the area and the people of the village. His superior mockingly calls him "Rembrandt", his best friend Lieutenant Kurt proudly lets himself be portrayed by him. Walter in particular enjoys being apparently far from the war .
One day the Greek Sephardim arrive in the village, where they are held in a camp until they are transported to Auschwitz . Through the barbed wire fence, the Jewess Ruth Walther asks for help for a woman giving birth. When Walter declines disinterestedly, she contemptuously describes him as a wolf and a rat. A little later, Walther appears in the camp with a doctor and has the exhausted woman who gives birth to a child treated. In the evening Walther cannot fall asleep and wanders around the village. He learns that the vehicle workshop has been broken into and finds the Bulgarian Bai Petko's lighter in the building, but does not reveal him.
The next day partisans secretly arrive at Petko. The “doctor” who treats the partisans in the forest needs medication, which Petko hopes to get by bribing Walther. He tells him that he wants the medication for the Jews in the camp and Walther smuggles a package with medicine to Blashe, one of Petko's errand boys.
Walther is in a bar with Kurt that evening. Kurt has found Bulgarian women, but Walther lets a woman come from the camp - Ruth. Walther and Ruth, followed by a security guard, walk around the nocturnal streets of the village and slowly get to know each other. After Walther left Ruth at the camp gate, he wonders for the first time what can be done.
The next day Walther learns that Blashe was caught with the medication by the Bulgarian police. He and Walther do not give themselves away, but Kurt has the Jews in the camp searched for medicines and punishes them when he finds parts of the stolen goods from them. Walther realizes that he has not achieved good by trying to do good. He turns to Petko, who lied to him about using the drugs. Petko, in turn, suspects him to have betrayed Blashe to the police, but Walther gives him back his lighter, proving that he is on his side. In the evening Walther meets again with Ruth, who was brought to him on Kurt's initiative. Walther implores her to flee, but Ruth initially refuses. Only at the end of a long conversation does she agree to flee the next night. Back at the camp, she is called a spy by the other prisoners and breaks down crying in her father's arms because she has not done anything bad after all.
Walther asks Kurt the next day when the Jews are to be transported away, and Kurt replies "tomorrow". Kurt suspects that Walther has fallen in love with Ruth, especially since he finds a portrait of Ruth in Walter's painting pad. Walther uses the day to organize an escape for Ruth through Petko. He also confesses that the partisans actually wanted to steal weapons when the car workshop was broken into. When the escape plan is in place, Walther wants to use an excuse to get Ruth out of the camp, but the Jews have already been picked up at the time. He runs to the platform, but can only see the departing cattle transport wagons, in which Ruth is also. In his room Walther finds the portrait of Ruth, on which Kurt wrote that he lied about the time the Jews were being transported, but that this was only for Walther's best. Walther goes to Petko and both begin to plan the supply of the partisans with weapons. The final shot shows Ruth in the cattle wagon; the song It burns sounds.
production
Angel Wagenstein processed his own experiences in the script. The figure of Blashe is based on him.
Kurt Maetzig was originally intended to be the director. He refuses, however, after he had already shaped Jewish fates in Ehe im Schatten and Die Buntkarierten and did not want to be committed to this topic. Angel Wagenstein then suggested Konrad Wolf, whom he knew from studying together in Moscow, as director.
The Israeli actress Haya Harareet was originally engaged for the role of Ruth . However, she withdrew her acceptance when she received an invitation from Hollywood . Tatiana Samoilova , who was intended as a replacement by Konrad Wolf , was not available for health reasons. As the beginning of the shooting was getting closer and closer and still no leading actress had been found, the Bulgarian director Rangel Waltschanow , who worked as an assistant director on the film , suggested his wife Sascha Kruscharska, who was still studying at the time. She became a star with this role.
The film was shot near Sofia in the late summer of 1958 . It premiered on March 27, 1959 at the same time in the Haus der Berliner Jugend on Klosterstrasse and in the Babylon cinema in Berlin.
In Bulgaria the film was initially not allowed to be shown because it was accused of abstract humanism , in particular it did not distinguish between the Jewish bourgeoisie and the Jewish proletariat. After the film won the special award at the Cannes Film Festival, it was also shown in Bulgaria - without the allegations being revised. There were also performance bans in the Soviet Union and Israel.
On June 3, 1960, the film came in a cut version in theaters of Germany . The final sequence in which Walter and Petko agree about the supply of weapons to the partisans was missing.
The film begins with the evacuation of the Jews and Walther's attempt to reach the moving wagons. A spokesman, who apparently lived in the village at that time, looks back from the present into that past and explains that the NCO was never known by name to the villagers, which is why he called him "Walther" for the sake of simplicity (based on his pistol procured for the partisans ). The narrator also intervenes at the end of the film.
The film features the Yiddish songs Es brennt (orig. S'brennt ) by Mordechaj Gebirtig and the folk song Eli Eli , which Gerry Wolff sings in a German version. The actors in the film speak in their native language, so Bulgarian dialogues and the Ladino of the Sephardi are subtitled.
In the visual language of the film Konrad Wolf broke new ground, which was recognized by the critics. The film-dienst praised the director in 1960 for his imagery:
“The director Wolf can see on film, fade in sophisticated simultaneous montages and use the possibilities of the inner monologue, set bold contrasts and use the close-up where it is emotionally appropriate. He paints the lost love of the two in long shots, on which people wander as if lost in the endless night, and there are perspectives, tracking shots, fades, lighting effects and other form elements that [...] are not used epigonally, but with a dramaturgical one Necessity and without externalization to translate the psychological depth into the optical film. "
In retrospect, Frank Stern found that the film “[had] an almost revolutionary imagery for 1959. Camera work, sound and image, dialogue and the actors' powers of representation go hand in hand with historical precision based on research and precise knowledge. "
reception
Stars , whose title alludes to the Jewish stars, is based on authentic events. With the film "for the first time in the German cinema the responsibilities of Germans for the mass murder of the Jews and the camp system were touched upon." Critics of the FRG addressed this quite ambiguously in their reviews:
“That such a fair and pure film comes from the Soviet DEFA of all places may, as some say, be a shame. I know a much greater shame: that our free film production has still not managed to deal with the painful subject that is at stake here. "
Klaus Wischnewski , chief dramaturge of the DEFA studio for feature films, wrote in retrospect about stars , the “first important and significant thing I saw [from DEFA] and what excited me tremendously”: “Please show me West German films of a similar color and quality. "
For Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler , the film helped “to bring complete knowledge of the events [of the persecution of the Jews] and its reprehensibility” and thus to generate a “complete overcoming [of the hostility to Jews] from within”, and the film-dienst also wrote in 1960 that Sterne “is one of those rare works of which one would think that people could make better.” Dieter Krusche called Sterne in 1977 “a moving and honest examination of the past, which is particularly impressive in the portrayal of the characters . ”According to Frank Stern 's assessment made in 2002, the images in the film made it possible“ to create historical legitimacy in the confrontation with the Shoah;
The film-dienst wrote: “A film full of poetry, emotion and human attitude with an excellent acting performance by Sascha Kruscharska. With this visually fascinating drama, DEFA director Konrad Wolf (1925-1982) created one of the most impressive films in GDR cinema. "
For Cinema , the film was a “startling masterpiece”.
The film was shown in 72 countries, including the USA in 1975.
Awards
Since the GDR was not invited to the Cannes International Film Festival in 1959 because it did not maintain diplomatic relations with France , Sterne was sent to the competition for the Palme d' Or as a Bulgarian film . The film ultimately won the jury's award. Der Spiegel thereupon wrote: "It seems [...] certain that Defa's interests were represented more emphatically during the decisive jury deliberations than those of the West German film industry" and he described Sterne as a "covered GDR film" with which DEFA is involved "smuggled" the competition and won it through "the representatives of the Eastern Bloc countries" in the jury.
In 1959, Sterne was awarded a gold medal at the film festival at the World Festival in Vienna and received a certificate of recognition in Edinburgh. Konrad Wolf and Werner Bergmann were awarded the GDR National Prize.
In 1995, film historians and journalists in the Association of German Cinematheques voted Sterne as one of the 100 most important German films of all time.
literature
- Frank-Burkhard Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 584-585.
- Claus Löser: Love and guilt under the sign of the Holocaust. Konrad Wolf's feature film STARS (1959) In: Claudia Bruns, Asal Dardan, Anette Diedrich (eds.): "Which of the stones you lift". Cinematic memory of the Holocaust. Bertz + Fischer, Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86505-397-8 , pp. 309-320.
Web links
- Stars in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Stars at filmportal.de
- Stars at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Antje Vollmer / Hans-Eckardt Wenzel: Konrad Wolf. Chronicler in the century of extremes. The other library, Berlin 2019, pp. 319–331
- ↑ Dagmar Schittly: Between Director and Regime: the SED's film policy in the mirror of DEFA productions . Ch.links, Berlin 2002, p. 93.
- ↑ a b USE .: Stars . In: Film-Dienst , No. 10, 1960.
- ↑ a b Frank Stern, Beer Sheva: Real Existing Jews in DEFA Film - A Cinema of Subversive Contradictions . In: Moshe Zuckermann (ed.): Between politics and culture - Jews in the GDR . Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, p. 150.
- ^ Frank-Burkhard Habel : The large lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 584.
- ^ Thomas Heimann: Pictures from Buchenwald: the visualization of anti-fascism in the GDR (1945-1990) . Böhlau, Cologne and Weimar 2005, p. 55.
- ^ Günther Geisler in: Berliner Morgenpost , June 19, 1960.
- ^ Ingrid Poss: Trace of the Films: Contemporary Witnesses on DEFA . Ch.links, Berlin 2006, p. 137.
- ↑ Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler in: Filmspiegel , No. 8, 1959.
- ↑ Stars . In: Dieter Krusche: Lexicon of the movies. From silent films to today . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1977, pp. 562-563.
- ↑ Stars. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ^ Antje Vollmer / Hans-Eckardt Wenzel: Konrad Wolf. Chronicler in the century of extremes. The other library, Berlin 2019, pp. 331f.
- ↑ Cannes Prize: Under a false flag . In: Der Spiegel , No. 22, 1959, p. 67.
- ^ Frank-Burkhard Habel : The large lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 585.
- ↑ See listing on filmportal.de ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
