Traitor to the fatherland
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Traitor to the fatherland |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Annekatrin Hendel |
| script | Annekatrin Hendel |
| production |
Anne Even , Annekatrin Hendel, Holly Tischman |
| music | Louis Rastig |
| camera |
Jule Cramer , Can Elbasi , Johann Feindt , Martin Langner |
| cut | Jörg Hauschild |
| occupation | |
| |
Vaterlandsverräter is a cinema documentary by Annekatrin Hendel , which premiered at the Berlinale 2011 and was released in cinemas that same year.
action
"The greatest enemy in the whole country, that is and remains the informer ". The writer Paul Gratzik , who rose from a humble background in the 1970s to a representative of the GDR literary scene, always had this saying of his mother in his ear. Nevertheless, he was an unofficial employee of the GDR State Security Service for 20 years , wrote reports about friends and sponsors such as Heiner Müller , Steffie Spira and Ernstgeorg Hering . At the beginning of the 1980s, Gratzik got out, unmasked himself and in turn became an object of Stasi observation.
Fatherland traitor is the filmic portrait of a man who is convinced of communism “with a loud character”, whose life was a zigzag between extremes.
Reviews
“It's about a traitor who regrets his betrayal, has the courage to reveal himself, and is now alone in the Uckermark province waiting for his end. Traitor to the fatherland begins to historicize the state security, but also to differentiate the image of it. It's an important film, with a new perspective on the subject. "
“In some moments the director's questions seem inappropriate about the film. Gratzik is thereby forced to explain himself in pretty sentences. But Hendel's naive sincerity is already wrong because the film itself shows how quickly you can betray people in terms of the effect: the spied on lover reads from a report about herself, and then only the viewer sees, not she, that she blackened area concerns her sex life. "
“Documentary filmmaker Annekatrin Hendel endures Gratzik's outbursts of anger with an expression that reflects less indignation than sad compassion. She doesn't ask any further; for the time being. Instead, she lets him tell: About his love for Steffi Spira, about the exhilaration of recognition after his breakthrough with the drama Malwa (1968). She visits his daughter Antje in Dresden with him, whom he affectionately calls 'Mausel' and films a nervous 75-year-old Paul Gratzik before his eye operation. "
“Director Annekatrin Hendel approaches Gratzik as a confidante. Here she has found a material that goes far beyond the portrait, which, at its roots, says a lot about functionality within the GDR. In this context, the conversations with Gratzik's command officer Günter Wenzel are particularly instructive. He had initially protected him and then, after Gratzik's departure, dropped him. "
Awards
The documentary won the 2013 Grimme Prize in the “Information and Culture” category.
Web links
- Traitors in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Traitor to the fatherland at filmportal.de
- Official web presence for the film
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for Traitors to the Fatherland . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2011 (PDF; test number: 126 677 K).
- ↑ Die Tageszeitung : A traitor remains true to himself . By Barbara Bollwahn on February 28, 2012
- ↑ Die Zeit : Documentation of a Treason , October 4, 2011
- ↑ Friday : The Spy Who Loved Each Other , October 19, 2011
- ↑ Berlinale 2011 : Traitor to the Fatherland: Pity for a Follower ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated February 15, 2011
- ↑ critic.de : "Even traitors suffer." , February 9, 2011
