»Freies Land« (D 1946). Filmvorführung aus unserer Reihe »Vom Propaganda - zum Aufklärungsinstrument? Trümmerfilme in Deutschland 1946«

In the organizer's words:

Director: Milo Harbich, 79 min., Germany (Soviet Zone) 1946

Shortly after filming began on the first so-called "rubble film", "Die Mörder sind unter uns", production began on a second film in May 1946, which was included in the program of DEFA, which had just been founded in the Soviet occupation zone at the time. "Freies Land" admittedly has a completely different character. Although director Milo Harbich (1900-1988) and the actors playing the leading roles had also worked for the now-defunct UFA, which was controlled by Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels, the film still retains its remarkable coloring today due to the fact that numerous amateur actors and actresses play alongside the "film professionals". Many of the people on screen are therefore just as "real" as the ruins of the war, which had just ended a year earlier, that provide the backdrop. The refugees and displaced persons from the lost territories in the East are therefore not "acting", they are people whose real fate is being addressed - just as the farmers in the Brandenburg village to which the refugees and displaced persons arrive in search of a new existence are "real". In addition to its fictional characters and storylines, "Freies Land" also has a documentary character, making it an unusual mixture. The people, now involuntarily united in a "village community", have to deal with the "land reform", i.e. the massive expropriation of large agricultural enterprises initiated by the Soviet occupying power with the help of the German communists brought to power by the latter, and its consequences. The film, which premiered in Berlin on October 18, 1946, thus has a propagandistic note, but at the same time lives from the immediate comprehensibility of the events of the time in which it was made.

Further dates:
September 07, 6 p.m.: "Somewhere in Berlin" (D 1946)
November 02, 6 p.m.: "In those days" (D 1946/47)

80 years on, we are showing films that were released or produced in German cinemas in 1946. All screenings will be preceded by a (film) historical introduction, followed by an opportunity to discuss what has been seen.