- Friesennot
-
Friesennot Directed by Peter Hagen Produced by Alfred Bittins (line producer)
Dr. Scheunemann (line producer)
Hermann Schmidt (producer)Written by Werner Kortwich (writer) Starring See below Music by Walter Gronostay Cinematography Sepp Allgeier Editing by W. Becker Release date(s) 1935 Running time 97 minutes (Germany) Country Germany Language German Friesennot is a 1935 German film directed by Peter Hagen.[1]
The film is also known as Dorf im roten Sturm (German reissue title) and Frisions in Distress (USA).
Contents
Plot
Communists authorities are making life as difficult as possible for a village of Volga Germans in the Soviet Union, with taxes and other oppression.[2] When Mette, a half-Russian, half-Frisian woman, becomes the girlfriend of Kommissar Tschernoff, the Frisians murder her and throw her body in the swamp.[3] Open violence breaks out, and the Red Army soldiers are all killed; the villagers set fire to their village and flee.[3]
Cast
- Friedrich Kayßler as Jürgen Wagner
- Helene Fehdmer as Kathrin Wagner
- Valéry Inkijinoff as Kommissar Tschernoff
- Jessie Vihrog as Das Mädchen Mette
- Hermann Schomberg as Klaus Niegebüll
- Ilse Fürstenberg as Dörte Niegebüll
- Kai Möller as Hauke Peters
- Fritz Hoopts as Ontje Ibs
- Martha Ziegler as Wiebke Detlevsen
- Gertrud Boll as Telse Detlevsen
- Maria Koppenhöfer as Frau Winkler
- Marianne Simson as Hilde Winkler
- Franz Stein as Christian Kröger
- Aribert Grimmer as Kommissar Krappien
Motifs
Despite Nazi hostility to religion, a cynical piece of anti-Communist propaganda depicts the Communists as posting obscene anti-religious posters, and the Friesans as piously declaring that all authority comes from God.[4]
The portrayal of Cherkov does not conform to the heavy-hand depiction of Communist as brutal and murderous in such films as Flüchtlinge; he is truly and passionately in love with Mette, and only with her death does he unleash his soldiers.[3] A villager objects to the affair on the grounds that even though her mother was Russian, her father's Friesan blood "outweighs" foreign blood, and therefore she must not throw herself at a foreigner.[3] Her murder is presented as in accordance with ancient Germanic custom for "race pollution."[5]
Ban
After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in 1939, the film was banned; in 1941, after the invasion of Russia, it was reissued under its new title.[6]
References
- ^ "New York Times: Friesennot (1936)". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/139915/Friesennot/overview. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p39-40 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ a b c d Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p40 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p40-1 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 384, ISBN 03-076435-1
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p41 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
External links
- Friesennot at the Internet Movie Database
- Friesennot is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
Categories:- German-language films
- 1935 films
- German films
- Black-and-white films
- 1930s drama films
- Nazi propaganda films
- Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
