Film:ReStored – So That a Good Germany May Flourish

GDR 1959, directed by Joop Huisken

In 1959, Joop Huiskens was commissioned to shoot an emblematic movie in Agfa Color for the GDR’s 10th anniversary. He envisioned a sort of filmic poem honoring workers, farmers, scientists, engineers, and politicians as architects of socialism. Poet Stephan Hermlin was brought on to write the voice-over and he created a commentary more poetic than impassioned: reserved, yet proud and optimistic. The SED party’s Politbüro, however, deemed the text too “neutralistic” and commissioned a new commentary by Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler. So, the movie came out in GDR theaters with a new soundtrack in honor of the festivities, while the Hermlin version wandered into the West.

The DEFA Foundation had both versions of the film digitized at 2K resolution. For the Hermlin version, they used a combined Agfacolor vintage print as source element. The original negative was available for the Schnitzler version. The digitization was supported by the FFA.

Introduction: Franziska Schuster (DEFA-Stiftung, Berlin)

Kino Arsenal | Admission 8 €, free of charge with filmrestored [at] deutsche-kinemathek.de (subject: Akkreditierung, body: Hiermit%20m%C3%B6chte%20ich%20mich%20kostenlos%20f%C3%BCr%20das%20Filmerbe-Festival%20anmelden.%0AName%3A) (Festival-Registration )