Facets Multimedia Presents HEIMAT

Press Release Director Episodes Images Critics Purchase	Edgar Reitz: A Chronicle of a Director Along with Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz is the senior figure of the New German Cinema, the name given to the group of directors who revitalized the German film industry during the 1960s and 1970s. Their saga began in 1962 during the German Festival for Short Films when 26 young German directors wrote and signed the Oberhausen Manifesto. Their statement colorfully declared that the old German cinema was dead: "Papas Kino ist tod (Papa's movies are dead)," the manifesto stated dramatically. These young directors sought expression via a fresh approach to the film language. Their short, unstructured films, produced on very low budgets, reflected their philosophy that German films should focus on contemporary German problems, such as the materialism of postwar society, the alienation of youth, and the moral disaster of the Nazi legacy. Some of the filmmakers made autobiographical films, suggesting that personal problems are a reflection of the's world problems, or at least connected to them. The attention they brought to the situation resulted in state funding for filmmakers and a great burst of filmmaking energy that brought many of the directors to world recognition. Reitz launched his career in that creative atmosphere when he collaborated with Kluge on Yesterday's Girl in 1966. That was followed by a series of 28 short films titled Tales of a Dumpsterkid, which he directed with Ula Stoeckl. Reitz seemed destined to be everyone's favorite collaborator when he continued pairing up with key directors of the period. In 1977-1978, he helped coordinate the collective Germany in Autumn, with Kluge, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Volker Schlondorff. In 1978, Reitz directed a costume drama titled The Tailor from Ulm, which was shot in Prague for budgetary reasons. The experience was an unmitigated disaster, and Reitz decided to retire from filmmaking. He retreated to that area of the Rhineland where he had been born to rethink his career and ambitions. The following year, the American-made miniseries The Holocaust was broadcast on German television. Reitz was so incensed at the manipulative nature of the material that he decided to respond with an alternative view of German history. His response became Heimat. Reitz began writing about his personal memories based on his childhood in a small village in the Hunsruck region of the Rhineland. A snowstorm kept him a virtual prisoner in his cottage for several weeks, which allowed him to focus only on the writing. It wasn't long before Reitz -- who was born in 1932 -- realized that his experiences were different than those of older villagers, and he decided he needed to go back further into German history. He researched the era and the area by collecting the stories and memories of other residents. He then spent several months searching for locations. The village of Schabbach in the script for Heimat was fictional, as were the characters in the story, but Reitz wanted to shoot his film in the region of the Hunsruck in an actual village. Reitz decided to use the village of Woppenroth and the surrounding area as his principle locations, and for almost two years, the cast and crew of Heimat dominated life in that part of the Hunsruck. The villagers became fully involved with the project. Reitz recalls: "...the most productive time...was when I went to look for objects and locations. I would just wander from one village to another putting adverts in the local papers asking For bric-a-brac. I met so many people, joyous at the opportunity to turn their cellars, attics and sheds inside out and with them their own history, their fears and hopes, their imaginations and memories." Upon completion, Heimat featured 32 main parts, 159 secondary parts, and several thousand extras. There were 52 crew members, and the project took almost 5 years to complete. The final version of Heimat -- which Reitz prefers to call a film rather than a series -- runs 15 hours and 40 minutes. Fortunately for Reitz, his hard work and unique vision paid off. Heimat first grabbed international attention when it was showcased at the Venice International Film Festival in 1984, winning the critics' award known as FIPRESCI Prize. Ironically, the festival decided to show Heimat only after the leading German directors -- Reitz's peers -- urged festival director Gian Luigi Rondi to include it. Heimat then went on to highly successful theatrical runs in Germany and London. Later, millions of viewers watched it on German television. In the mid-1980s, Heimat was screened in the major markets in the United States, including at the Museum of Modern Art in their Directors/New Film Series. Reitz was inspired to continue the saga of Heimat from another perspective. While Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany focused on the villagers who stayed home or returned home, Heimat II: Chronicle of a Generation told the story of those who go away. The second Heimat series offers a version of German history in the 1960s from the perspective of Hermann Simon, who left his village to go to school to become a composer. Hermann befriends a group of other students, who-- like himself--left home to seek a different life and a different perspective. Heimat II took six years to complete, finally premiering in 1992. At 25½ hours, it is the longest film released as a single work. In 2002, Reitz expanded Heimat to a third series, which was shown on German television. Beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall Heimat III chronicles a very decisive decade for Germany -- 1989 to 2000. The series continues the story of Hermann Simon, who returns to Schabbach with Clarissa, a character introduced in Heimat II. Reitz's chronicle of his homeland (a loose translation of the word "heimat") has taken up most of his life and career. While it would be easy to suggest that the three Heimat series represent the history of Germany as illustrated through the experiences of the Simon family saga, that would not be accurate. The three Heimats do not illustrate history; they reveal three different perspectives in relation to historical events. Heimat I is the effect of events on those who stay at home; Heimat II the effect on those who left home; and Heimat III effect on those who want to return home. But as Reitz himself has pointed out, "People want to go back to a place where they were happy as children. The drama lies in the fact that one can never return."