The postwar search to redefine "Heimat" was on display in the 1950s through a new genre of so-called Homeland Films. This evolving German cinema also reacted to the rapid postwar lifestyle changes that were dissolving the structures that had defined homeland. [...]
This film obviously picks up on intra-family or psycho-social dramas – chasms which open up as soon as you describe social relationships and family structure in more detail. Then [the homeland] looks different, of course. But in the films from the 1950s, it was obviously very much about reconciliation, about sorting out family ties — what actually still holds or may hold. [...]
Yes, in the conscience of the German Republic, the term "Heimat" is reminiscent of something maternal. It's the place of longing to which one returns. Actually, the homeland really starts to become meaningful when you think back over your life: Where did you settle? Where did you live your adult life? And then you are suddenly looking back on old times, old surroundings, which is very much characterized by the maternal.
No comments:
Post a Comment