Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern
Germany
Shown in 1969
CREDITS
- dir
-
Peter Fleischmann
- prod
-
Rob Houwer
- scr
-
Peter Fleischmann
- cam
-
Alain Derobe
- cast
-
Martin Sperr, Angela Winkler, Erika Wackernagel, Else Quecke , Hanna Schygulla
- source
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Radim Films, New York
OTHER
Of all the new crop of films by new German directors, this first film by Peter Fleischmann has attracted the most attention, and is based upon a prizewinning play by 25-year-old Martin Sperr. Hunting Scenes from Bavaria is a contemporary political play, which, in its broadest viewpoint, is an examination of the social order and its morals. It is set in Lower Bavaria, not because that particular locale is the source of the actions taking place in the film, but because the overall pattern of behavior in German village life was the best way to illustrate a certain sociological process: the hunting or persecution of human beings who, because of certain peculiarities, are living outside of the social order. The subject of aggression is at the center of Fleischmann’s film, and it is fascinating and horrifying to watch the interchangeability of victims in this story of inbred vindictiveness among the villagers of Unholzing. In this idyllic-seeming place, everyone knows and depends upon on everyone else, and in such a closed community, a defect becomes an evil—a mistake, a sin. When Abram, a young mechanic returns to the village after having lived and worked in the city, it is soon learned that he has served a jail term for sexual inversion. This information sets everything into motion. Abram’s mother, who has not fully been accepted by the village because she had come from elsewhere, is reviled. She, in turn scorns her son. In an effort to forget his past and clear himself in the eyes of the villagers, Abram has an affair with a village girl. But the villagers remain adamant; not only do they continue to persecute Abram but others as well who seem different in any way. This powerful, bitter film achieves profundity because it is so honestly presented and mostly played by nonprofessionals (the actual people of Unholzing). The role of Abram is enacted by the playwright himself, and in the final analysis, he and the entire cast succeed in making a vivid denunciation of the fascist system—where fear makes hunters out of the hunted.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #208
Before the showing of Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest at the 40th SFIFF, Bay Area editor Walter Murch (who selected the film to screen in the Indelible Images series), passed out fortune cookies to the crowd with Bresson’s musings on making films.
