I WAS NINETEEN
80 Years after WWII
Konrad Wolf, born in 1925 as the son of German-Jewish communists, grew up in the Soviet Union. At the age of 17, he joined the Red Army and was among the troops that took Berlin in 1945. His classic film I WAS NINETEEN, a DEFA production with a record budget, deals with these experiences. Appointed Commander of Bernau in 1945, Gregor Hecker, Wolf’s alter ego, liberates prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and encounters a broken homeland whose language he speaks in spite of the fact that he did not grow up there. Dynamic montage scenes, documentary footage and philosophical dialogue are key elements here, as Jaecki Schwarz shines in his first leading role. In the GDR, over 3.3 million people would see the film.
Konrad Wolf, born in 1925 as the son of German-Jewish communists, grew up in the Soviet Union. At the age of 17, he joined the Red Army and was among the troops that took Berlin in 1945. His classic film I WAS NINETEEN, a DEFA production with a record budget, deals with these experiences. Appointed Commander of Bernau in 1945, Gregor Hecker, Wolf’s alter ego, liberates prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and encounters a broken homeland whose language he speaks in spite of the fact that he did not grow up there. Dynamic montage scenes, documentary footage and philosophical dialogue are key elements here, as Jaecki Schwarz shines in his first leading role. In the GDR, over 3.3 million people would see the film.
