Kameradschaft

original title:
Kameradschaft
other titles:
Comradeship, La Tragédie de la Mine
country / year of production:
Germany , France / 1931
original length:
93 min. , black/white
premiere:
17 November 1931
genre:
melodrama
based on:
director:
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
film script:
Peter Martin Lampel , Karl Otten , Ladislaus Vajda
producer:
Seymour Nebenzal
cinematographer:
Robert Baberske , Fritz Arno Wagner
editor:
Hans Oser
composer:
cast (role):
Fritz Kampers (Kasper) , Alexander Granach (Wilderer) , Ernst Busch (Wittkopp) , Elisabeth Wendt (Frau Wittkopp) , Gustav Püttjer (Kaplan) , Fritz Kampers , Alexander Granach , Ernst Busch , Elisabeth Wendt , Gustav Püttjer
more:
plot synopsis:
In French mine near the German border several French miners are trapped in a cave-in. Their situation seems hopeless. On the neighbouring German mine a heated discussion begins. Why rescue the ones who forced the country into bankruptcy? Against the will of the mine owners a group of experienced miners manages to rescue their French colleagues through a long-abandoned underground tunnel, buried since the First World War. While the miners celebrate the rescue, the mine owners helped by border police takes care that the borders knocked down are quickly replaced.
keywords:
post-war era , based on a true story , friends on opposite sides , suicide squad / mission
war:
First World War (1914-1918)
literature:
Helga Belach/ Hans-Michael Bock (Eds.). Kameradschaft. Drehbuch Vajda/ Otten/ Lampel zu G. W. Pabsts Film von 1931. München: edition text + kritik, 1997.

Hermann Bath. Psychagogische Strategien des filmischen Diskurses in G.W. Pabsts "Kameradschaft". München: Diskurs Film 1990. (Diskurs Film Bibliothek 2). 281, CCXVI p.
remarks:
The film is based on a mine accident that took place in Courières in 1906. In order to convey his message of universal brotherhood Pabst shifted the action to the time shortly after the First World War.

Most of the scenes were taken in the studio except for a few outside-shots taken in in Lens, Bethune, and Gelsenkirchen.

In 1933 the film was banned by Nazi-censorship.
availability:
VHS