Old movies allow rare insight into past realities. “Drawn” by the Danish master Director Carl Theodor Dreyer told in 1922 by a witch hunt for Jews.
Southwest turned of Berlin, with great facilities, extras in the army, especially with Russian exile-actors, the Film is “Drawn” is a historical document, but also a brand new movie. It is about exclusion and hatred for minorities, told a story of people, between the revolutionary conflict and intolerance.
Re-discovery of a controversial silent film
100 years ago, the novel by the German-born Danish writer Aage Madelung, dealt in his book with the anti-Jewish sentiment during the Revolution in Russia of 1905 appeared. The novel sold in this country are extremely good. Three years later, the Danish film pioneer Carl Theodor Dreyer, from the fabric made a feature film.
In the dramatic film the final, the Jews are harassed
A few years ago The Drawn was “restored”. Now, the Film was also re-translated between tracks – the old met in the wording of the Russian version – and with played music published. Behind the reconstruction of old films, mainly those from the silent film Era, is often a adventurous history. Between titles, especially in the case of films with a political-historical context, thus from today’s point of view – often a distorting effect.
Dreyer tells episodes from the Russian Revolution of 1905
The original German version of the film disappeared in the course of the years, long a Soviet export version of “The Drawn war”. It was only with the discovery of a copy of the film in Toulouse, France, and the now reconstructed between titles Dreyer’s work corresponds to approximately the original version – except that about 30 minutes of the original are gone until today.
Contrasts in Black-and-White: “The Subscribed”
Aage Madelung, and Dreyer tell in the book how to Film an Episode from the eve of the Revolution in Russia of 1905. The action takes place in the Russian province, and in St. Petersburg, the protagonists come from different strata of society. In the center of a Jewish brother and sister pair, this is mired by various circumstances in the revolutionary turmoil of the time.
The Suffering and martyrdom of the people
It is in “The Drawn”, tells his story with the genre’s typical melodramatic means, at the core of the topic of tolerance, and – as so often in Dreyer’s – the “Suffering and martyrdom of the people” (Ib Monty). In the Central figure of the Jewish girl, Hanne-Liebe, who has (Polina Piechowska, our picture above) met the audience of a figure, the device especially because of their religious origin in the wheels of resentment and persecution.
The Finale of the movie shows, with its impressive display, like an unrestrained Mob is hunting Jews, uninhibited and in a blood frenzy. In this persecution, Yakov Segal (Vladimir Gaidarow), the brother of Hanne-Liee, as well as many other Jews lost their lives – solely because they are identified by the unleashed pack as a part of a particular (religious) group.
The Suffering and martyrdom of the people: Dreyer’s silent film
Contemporary criticism: “the suffering of a whole people”
“The new Primus-Palace-play of light with great success, already in the third week of running Film is now in the Alhambra, an interested audience,” wrote in 1922, “The cinematograph”, as Dreyer’s Film was in the German play of light houses, and asked: “A tendency of the film? Maybe. In any case, a leave of the few very strong with a strong character, forcing the viewer into its spell and make an impression. (…) It is less the fate of the individual, the interested in here. It is the destiny of all, it is the suffering of a whole people.”
The Journalist Axel Rühle remarked almost a century later, in the “süddeutsche Zeitung”: “Always amazing, which lie dormant in the archives of the film museums still look for treasures. You should believe, slowly, the stock of the old films was not known, too many of them there are, but then a huge gold suddenly appears again lumps.”
Re-discovery on DVD
Views in film history – the impetus for today
For today’s viewers, the Film means not only the re-discovery of a long-forgotten, the remarkable work of a major Director. “Drawn” is also a highly topical Film. One and a half decades after the shooting in the vicinity of Berlin, conform a Pogrom in Russia in 1905, raged in the German capital, a Mob against the Jewish population, at the end of the death of six million Jews. Also to reflect on in the years 2018, in Germany it is discussed, what is a “witch-hunt”.
Carl Theodor Dreyer: die Gezeichneten, the game film from 1922, a length of 95 minutes, language German, subtitles English, with the newly recorded music by Bernd Thewes, appear at the provider’s “Absolute media”/Arte Edition.