Section: Homeland | Domownja | Domizna

Struga - Bilder einer Landschaft

Struga - Portrait of a Region

Konrad Herrmann

GDR, 1972, 30 Min

A deserted village covered in nothing but ruins. An excavator eats into the land, as trees are felled. A Sorbian prayer in the village church. A folk club rehearses a Sorbian song. Power station workers chuckle to themselves. And then there is the surreal footage of a Zapust procession, which makes its way through the forest.

A poetic film made in Lusatia.

Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

Konrad Herrmann's graduate film was produced on behalf of the Domowina (the political independent league of the Sorbian and Wendish people), intended to mark the organisation's 60th anniversary and based on a poetry collection of Sorbian poet Kito Lorenc. Screened at DOK Leipzig before going on to international acclaim, the film proved controversial in the GDR, as a consequence of which it was rarely screened: never before had a film portrayed Sorbian mythology in such a divisive manner, namely by juxtaposing tradition alongisde the destruction of the ethnic group's living space. A work of timeless beauty and relevance. GL

Filmformat
Beta SP | s/w / b/w

Drehbuch
Kito Lorenc, Toni Bruk, Konrad Herrmann

Kamera
Franz Ritschel, Lutz Körner

Ton
Hannes Brennwald

Schnitt
Ingrid Seidel

Produzent
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR, Anke Seber

Produktion
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen „Konrad Wolf“

Kontakt
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Cristina Marx
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 1
14482 Potsdam
Germany
Tel: +49.331.620.25 64
c.marx@filmuniversitaet.de
www.filmuniversitaet.de

Konrad Herrmann - born 1948 in Bautzen, Germany. He studied directing at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen “Konrad Wolf”, GDR, and switched from East German state television to the DEFA Documentary Film Studio in 1986. Since 1994 Herrmann has been working as a freelance director and author. He is also founder of the HerrmannFilm production company Berlin.

Movies
RUBLAK – LEGENDA WÓ WUMĚRJANEM KRAJU (1983)
ALLTAG DER TRÄUME (1986, short, exp)
LIEB GEORG (1988, doc)
DIE ANGST UND DIE MACHT (1989, doc)
HONECKERS ZERMONIENMEISTER (1991, doc)
LEBEN GEGEN DIE ZEIT (1993, doc, Cottbus 2016)
SIEG ÜBER DEN HASS(1995, doc, Cottbus 2016)
EIN ALTROCKER IN AMT UND WÜRDEN (1998, doc)
IM UNRUHESTAND (2004, doc)

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