Heimatland

In general in the 1950's the Heimatfilm genre was a kind of escapism for city people who wanted to get away from the problems of every day life and see a world where everything was still pure and simple. In hindsight this nostalgia was a rather innocent pastime, and do we not still see films to get away from everyday life. But there were Heimatfilms that went a step further, and - using a trivial story - accentuated a world with a mentality that was on the verge of the "Blut und Boden" philosophy. These films reflect the hypocritical illusion of a clean world only to be found in the Heimat and in which modern (read: not German/Austrian-traditional) and above all outside influences were to be shut out of.

This film is a good (and I use the word lightly) example of the B&B Heimatfilms and if still not introduced to this typical German/Austrian film genre I can recommend this one: all the clichés and banalities are here, as are a couple of the unavoidable stars of the Heimatfilm genre: the firm-handshake lover Rudolf Prack and Marianne Hold who wore her maidenhead on her forehead. Their emanation is nondescript and as such they are the right choice: not the individual characters are important, but the fitting in of individuals within the community.

The confined space of the Heimat is stressed by the point that not someone from outside the community brings influence from outside, but someone from within the community brings this. He is a man returning to the community after having had a free life outside the community; through this influence he has developed a bad character. And not only that: the community is also invaded by a group of people not knowing a Heimat for themselves at all: traveling fair men and women. Both the returning man and this crowd bring death, despair and anger to the community. The killing of the returning man is not brought about by a community member, but his own dog is indirectly responsible: the man has brought about his own ruin.

Nationalism and traditionalism are of course other items and in this film these are present at a level of suffocating in it. It is accentuated within the story by the president of the folklorist union who claims that the yearly folklorist feast should be held only with the traditional costume being compulsory: costume being the reflection of the someone's inner psychological world. Marianne Hold plays a school teacher whose only job appears to be, and this is simply laughable, to teach the children sentimental, nationalist songs; three times the class is shown and there seems to be nothing else on the curriculum than singing these songs, with the title song Heimatland the most important one: "Heimatland, wie sehn' ich mich nach Dir" (Heimatland, how I long for you). Know your Heimatland first and for all, other things can wait.

Note also that, unlike that other German film genre: the Bergfilm (mountain film), the mountains only play a part as background, as a border to the community. The mountains (= nature) are not there to be conquered; the individual is supposed to be restricted by them, to fit in with nature. The last shots of the film tell it all: the finally married couple on a bench set in the middle of nature: they are a part of nature, of the Heimatland.

It all could have been at least bearable watching if the film was made on an acceptable level. One thing you might expect of a film like this that it can seduce and hypnotise the viewer to let all the banalities be accepted during watching. But the film's director Franz Antel, a regular of the genre, was a clumsy average director without any personality. His direction is plain and without any spirit. All indoor scenes give the impression of being no more than scenes on a stage, which is caused by the plain lightning accentuating everything within the image the same way, and the simplest of cinematography. The conservative political Adenauer credo of the 50's "No experiments" influenced the technique of the conservative Heimatfilm as well.

Not having enough of the original story "Krambambuli", Franz Antel used it again in 1965 for "Ruf der Wälder", a very strange film.

To appreciate the "Heimatfilm" one has to consider a few facts. The word "Heimatfilm" has in cinematographic Germany of today not such a good sound. But that is the kind of entertainment the people in Germany needed after the traumatic WW II. That Genre was totally produced for the taste of the masses and served well for this. It is a similar speciality of German cinematography like the Karl May films (Winnetou and friends) and the Edgar Wallace films of the sixties. Nothing that can be very interesting for Non-Germans, neither could be understood by other people. You should notice that Germans in the fifties were not politically interested. They just wanted "Heimat", a manageable scope for daily life. Mostly the "Heimatfilm" plays in the mountain areas, where You could not see the damage the war brought to the German cities, the place as well where a short trip for holidays was possible for the German people. If You went for holidays, You went to the Sea or to the Mountains. The Heimatfilm and the „Bergfilm", which is another speciality of the German cinematography (films featuring mountain stories), are closely related, the first comes from the latter. That started already in the twenties. Even Luis Trenker was a German filmmaker, because the people of South Tirol did not regard themselves as Italians ( and still don't) German film-making has not been a successful story in the last 30 years, but in the fifties with the „Heimatfilm" and in the sixties it was. You could also grasp the meaning of these movies for the German audience when You compare them with the Bollywood movies. The Indian audience is also not interested in politics, they just want to escape into a hail world for a few hours. There are no more "Heimatfilme" for the cinema any longer, but there were always TV-series about the same Genre. What the "western" is for the US citizen is the "Heimatfilm" for the Germans. This is something for depth psychology. The Germans seem to have a strong inclination for having a nice time in a natural surrounding (natural but under control) where they can dedicate themselves to their "Weltschmerz" and cultivate their longing for peace and harmony (which should not be interrupted again). So far it is not alarming that violence-films are not produced in this country. Unfortunately they are shown on TV, made in the USA. The elder people look the harmless "Heimatfilm", the younger look violence- and action-films. A new generation of violent-prepared Germans is brought up, with the help of US movie and TV productions.