''At A French Fireside'' (german: An französischen Kaminen) is an
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
film directed by
Kurt Maetzig
Kurt Maetzig (25 January 1911 – 8 August 2012) was a German film director who had a significant effect on the film industry in East Germany. He was one of the most respected filmmakers of the GDR. After his retirement he lived in Wildkuh ...
. It was released in 1963.
Plot
Bundeswehr
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
soldier Klaus' regiment is stationed in France, to take part in
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
maneuvers. The soldiers are ordered to be kind to the populace, since the West German High Command wishes the French to forget the atrocities that were committed during the Second World War. Klaus falls in love with Jeanne, the daughter of the local mayor. He discovers that his commanders intend to demolish the ruins of a local church, in which civilians were murdered by the German occupation forces at 1944. A local journalist who researches the event discovers that West German General Rucker ordered the massacre, but he is mysteriously murdered. Klaus defies his commanding officer Siebert, who instructs him to steal the documents implicating Rucker, and hands the evidence over to Jeanne.
Cast
* Arno Wyzniewski - Klaus Wetzlaff
*
Angelica Domröse
Angelica Domröse (; born April 4, 1941, in Berlin) is a German actress, who became famous in the role of Paula in Heiner Carow's film '' The Legend of Paul and Paula''. Her Mediterranean appearance is the result of her biological father being a ...
- Jeanne
*
Hannjo Hasse
Hannjo Hasse (31 August 1921 – 5 February 1983) was an East German actor.
Biography
Hasse began studying acting in 1938, and attended Lily Ackermann's Institute for Stage Artists' Education in Berlin. At 1941, he was drafted for the Labour Ser ...
- Major Siebert
*
Harry Hindemith - Bourguignon
* Raimund Schelcher - Ludovic
*
Günther Simon - General Rucker
* Evelyn Cron - Georgette
Production
The film was one of eight major
DEFA
DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence.
Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...
pictures made between 1959 and 1964 that centered on the theme of the
Cold War, with an underlying message that East Germany had to defend itself from the West. Director Kurt Maetzig told an interviewer that he greatly disliked the script he filmed, and the work on ''At A French Fireside'' eventually inspired him to make the controversial ''
The Rabbit Is Me
''The Rabbit Is Me'' (german: Das Kaninchen bin ich) is an East German dramatic film directed by Kurt Maetzig. It was filmed in 1965, and based on the novel by .
Plot
Nineteen-year-old Maria Morzeck dreams of studying Slavistics, but her hope ...
''.
Reception
The film was poorly received, and was not successful with the audiences. The German Film Lexicon defined ''At A French Fireside'' as a "completely unbelievable piece of propaganda". Dagmar Schittly viewed it as a typical "saboteur film", in the tradition of anti-Western DEFA thrillers.
[Dagmar Schittly. ''Zwischen Regie und Regime. Die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen''. . Page 123.]
References
External links
*
*
At A French Fireside' original poster on ostfilm.de.
*
At A French Fireside' on DEFA Sternstunden.
{{Kurt Maetzig
1963 films
East German films
1960s German-language films
Films directed by Kurt Maetzig
Cold War films