DIRECTOR - 8 AWARDS
by Juraj Herz
The events happened more than sixty years ago, but their effects can be felt even today. If we want to understand the present, we have to know what happened in the past.
The film starts with the expulsion: we know from the start how this story will end – there is no escape. Then we are shown the events that let up to it. The story of “Habermann” ends after the “expulsion” 1945 and shows one of the darkest chapters in the relationship between Germans and Czechs.
The atrocities perpetrated in the course of the expulsion are a taboo to his date. Many Czechs do not want to be reminded of it, many Germans insist that they have been wronged bitterly at the time and that nobody has ever had to pay for this. There is now a new young generation that wants information about the past. This new interest has resulted in a number of successful feature films and television films about historical topics in the last few years. “Habermann” is to be one of them.
There are many scenes that focus on the main characters. In addition, there are mass scenes – the wedding, the expulsion, the lynch mob. Large parts of these are meant to convey the feeling of a documentary film: the camera will be used as if randomly, it is not meant to produce elegant steadycam pictures and contrived looking compositions. The almost constant movement of the camera will be in stark contrast to scenes in which suddenly leaden immobility ensues. After the first peaceful days showing Habermann’s live in strong autumn colours, the images will get paler and the colours more subdued.
The film starts with the expulsion: we know from the start how this story will end – there is no escape. Then we are shown the events that let up to it. The story of “Habermann” ends after the “expulsion” 1945 and shows one of the darkest chapters in the relationship between Germans and Czechs.
The atrocities perpetrated in the course of the expulsion are a taboo to his date. Many Czechs do not want to be reminded of it, many Germans insist that they have been wronged bitterly at the time and that nobody has ever had to pay for this. There is now a new young generation that wants information about the past. This new interest has resulted in a number of successful feature films and television films about historical topics in the last few years. “Habermann” is to be one of them.
There are many scenes that focus on the main characters. In addition, there are mass scenes – the wedding, the expulsion, the lynch mob. Large parts of these are meant to convey the feeling of a documentary film: the camera will be used as if randomly, it is not meant to produce elegant steadycam pictures and contrived looking compositions. The almost constant movement of the camera will be in stark contrast to scenes in which suddenly leaden immobility ensues. After the first peaceful days showing Habermann’s live in strong autumn colours, the images will get paler and the colours more subdued.
Chronical: Juraj Herz was born in Kezmarok/Slovakia in 1934. He studied Photography in Bratislava and Puppetry at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He then worked as a director and actor at the Semafor Theater in Prague before going to the Barrandov film studios in 1961 to become an assistant director.
Active as a director, actor and set designer, a selection of his films includes: The Junk Shop (1965), Oil Lamps (1971), Day for My Love (1976), Beauty and the Beast (1978), Bulldogs and Cherries (1981), The Magpie in the Wisp (1983), The Night Overtake Me (1986), The Frog Prince (1991), The Emperor’s New Clothes (1994), Lara – My Years with Boris Pasternak (1994), and Habermann (2010), among others.
Active as a director, actor and set designer, a selection of his films includes: The Junk Shop (1965), Oil Lamps (1971), Day for My Love (1976), Beauty and the Beast (1978), Bulldogs and Cherries (1981), The Magpie in the Wisp (1983), The Night Overtake Me (1986), The Frog Prince (1991), The Emperor’s New Clothes (1994), Lara – My Years with Boris Pasternak (1994), and Habermann (2010), among others.