Section: Close Up WWII

Vernymi ostanemsja

Wir bleiben treu, Teil 1/2

Andrej Maljukow

Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Hungary, Spain, 1988, 181 Min

Communists from six countries, all of whom are members of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War in the fight against the fascists, take a vow to remain true to themselves. The film traces their biographies over a period of twenty years, all the way up to the Hungarian uprising in 1956. A joint production by six socialist states that never reached cinema screens in the GDR.

The film follows the subsequent paths of the six protagonists. Many elements are combined, both private and historical, as well as everyday with extraordinary. Aspects come into play that were excluded from cinematic works of the socialist states until 1988: a Soviet fighter in Spain is exposed to reprisals in his homeland, there are scenes from a Siberian prison camp. Polish communists come up against the Armija Krajowa, the Polish Home Army. Whilst in Hungary there was a nationwide revolt in 1956. In the German episode, two brothers face each other on different sides of the barricades: one is fighting for the Spanish Republic, the other in the Condor Legion. While the film was in fact screened in several participating countries, it was not shown in the GDR. At the end of the 1980s the distributor acknowledged that it was a “distorted representation of history from the subjective point of view of its makers”. RS

Andrej Maljukow -

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