Taiga (1958)

Movie
Original title	taiga
Country of production	Federal Republic of Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1958
length	100 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Wolfgang Liebeneiner
script	Herbert Reinecker
production	Utz Utermann
camera	Georg Krause
cut	Margot von Schlieffen
occupation
Ruth Leuwerik : Hanna Dietrich Hannes Messemer : Roeder Günter Pfitzmann : Dickmann Viktor Staal : Weber Hans Quest : Weep Paul Bösiger : Reimers Walter Ladengast : Bachmann Willi Rose : Berthold Charles Regnier : Becker Alexander Engel : Sazarin Peter Lühr : Western law Werner Hessenland : Kessler August Holler : Schönreich Egon Vogel : Beyfuss Georg Lehn : Falcon Willy Schultes : Seitz Peter Capell : Judge Arnulf Schröder : Feuerbach Wolfgang Büttner : Sennewald Wolf Ackva : Engelhardt Ernst Konstantin : Malinkovic Peter Vogel : Winter

Taiga is a German black and white film by Wolfgang Liebeneiner from 1958 with Ruth Leuwerik and Hannes Messemer in the leading roles.

action

The film is set in Russia a few years after the end of World War II . Around 300 German prisoners of war live in a camp on the edge of the huge Siberian taiga . They are treated like work slaves. Many of them are apathetic and have lost all hope that their situation will one day change for the better. When one day new prisoners are brought to the camp, there is also a woman among them, the German doctor Hanna Dietrich. Because she is the only female person in the camp, she is worshiped by her male compatriots.

Gradually, Hanna succeeds in giving the rough men a feeling of hope and inner peace. But when the woman was picked up by a truck after a few weeks, disappointment spreads among those who stayed behind.

Production notes

The film was shot largely in the Bavaria Studios Geiselgasteig . The buildings were designed by the production designers Robert Herlth and Gottfried Will . The script was written by Herbert Reinecker . In the Federal Republic of Germany, the film was released for the first time on August 28, 1958.

Awards

Ruth Leuwerik received the Golden Gate Award for her role as Hanna Dietrich at the San Francisco International Film Festival . The Federation of Expellees , it was considered in the same year with a price.

criticism

"Initially a serious attempt, however, not going beyond maudlin effects, to trace the needs of those German prisoners of war who were held as work slaves by the Soviets for years after the surrender."

- Lexicon of international film

source

• Program for the film, published by Das Neue Filmprogramm GmbH Mannheim, No. 4036.

Web links

• Taiga in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Taiga at filmportal.de (with pictures)
• Various film posters at filmportal.de
• Pictures from the film at cinema.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ rororo-Taschenbuch Nr. 3174 (1988), p. 3703.