Fatherland

Vaterland

Germany

2002

98 Min

Color

1.33:1

German

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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PROD Heino Deckert, Beate Schönfeldt

SOUND Uwe Haussig, Sven Piesker, Martin Steyer

Synopsis

“Vaterland” is a key work in Thomas Heise’s filmography. In the beginning a voice over reads the letters his father Wolfgang and his brother sent their family from a labour camp. When they were 19 they had been sentenced to a labour camp for so-called «jüdische Mischlinge», Jewish half-breed. The camp was located in Straguth, in the surroundings of Zerbst, State of Saxony-Anhalt. At the time of the shooting the village counted about 290 inhabitants. Maybe the most «Fordian» movie by Thomas Heise. —karagarga

Director

Thomas Heise

Thomas Heise was born in 1955 and trained as a printer from 1971-1973. He began to work at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films from 1975 as an assistant director for filmmakers like Heiner Carow and Juli Raisman. In 1978, he began studying at the Academy of Film & Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg (HFF/B), but broke off his studies in 1982. Since then, he has worked as a freelance writer and director, and also as a contributing director at the Berliner Ensemble theater since 1991. —filmportal.de