I Was Nineteen
by Konrad Wolf
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexej Ejboshenko, Galina Polskikh, Jaecki Schwarz, Vasily Livanov, Wassili LiwanowDirector: Konrad Wolf
Brand: First RUN Features
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Movie Reviews of I Was Nineteen
Movie Review: Highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
I have watched this film on DVD several times and plan to watch it again.
This would be a good film for anyone who is studying Russian or German.
There is a very complex interplay between Hecker, who is a German-Russian, Wadim who is a Russian Jew, and Sascha, who is Russian. Hecker is only nineteen and does not know much about the world. He was raised in Germany until he was 8 then his family moved to Moscow. So, his formative years were spend in Russia and he identifies himself as a Soviet. This leads to some interesting scenes in which he interacts with Germans who, in some cases, even know his family members. They are in turn fascinated by a "German" in a Soviet uniform who is appearing as a their conqueror.
His comrade Wadim is a Russian Jew who is also a German language teacher in his civilian profession. Wadim loves the German language, but must reconcile the defeat of Germany, the atrocities of the camps, and his friend Hecker's disinterest in German culture. At one point there is strife between Wadim and Hecker over this.
Sascha is a kommisar and takes care of young Hecker. He is like an older brother to Hecker. His character is uncomplicated by the internal conflicts of the others. Along with Dsingis, they provide a solid foundation for the conflicted Hecker and Wadim.
One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is at then end when Hecker and his captured German prisoners come under fire from a passing German convoy. A German prisoner, Willi Lommer, who had been disarmed, picks up a rifle to help Hecker defend their position. It's a pure "us against them" moment in which countries, uniforms, backgrounds, don't matter, only survival.
A complex and interesting movie worth not only watching, but studying.
Summary of I Was Nineteen
Based on the secret diary kept by acclaimed German filmmaker Konrad Wolf while he was a soldier in the Russian Army, I WAS NINETEEN is the director's most personal film. A highlight of the DEFA collection, Wolf examines his own past through the poetic story of a young German, Gregor Hecker, who as a child fled with his parents to the Soviet Union, but who eventually returns to Germany as a soldier after WWII with the victorious Soviet troops.Suddenly Gregor finds he is different from his comrades in arms, for this defeated land is his home and the Germans he meets upon his return are his compatriots. Gregor is a victor, but also one of the vanquished. As the Soviet troops advance into Germany, Gregor attempts to understand the Germans he meets along the way. His perspective is that of a nineteen year-old, inquisitive, occasionally uncomprehending, and repeatedly dismayed by the atrocities and lies he encounters. Gregor falls in love and simply cannot understand the death of a friend in the last hours of the war - the final death in a long line of deaths that pave his way from Moscow to Berlin.
An austere, independent minded work of art, the film not only contains many stories about the last days of the war, but also tells Wolf's own story and uses actual documentary footage from the documentary "Death Camp of Sachsenhausen" (1946), which was one of the first post-war German films about the Nazi period.
The DEFA Collection refers to the state-run studios of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Located in the historic "film city" of Babelsberg near Berlin, DEFA was part of one of the world's oldest and most distinguished film traditions. It produced films in nearly all genres including documentaries, feature films, animation and more.
I WAS NINETEEN is ranked by film critics to be among Germany's 100 most important films of all time.
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