New Heimat film: Edgar Reitz
One of the longest film series of all time just got four hours longer. German history between 1919 and 2000 had its fair share of incident, and it has taken monomaniacal filmmaker Edgar Reitz 32 films to chronicle the nation’s development from post-Versailles chaos to Europe’s leading economy. But what makes his Heimat series so compelling is its focus on a single family from a hilly region of the Rhineland: over the course of 53 hours, searingly emotional domestic dramas play out against the backdrop of political change.
Home from Home: Chronicle of A Vision
With Home from Home, Reitz has chosen not to extend his story up to the present day, but to wind back to the 1840s for an atmospheric prequel. We meet the family’s ancestor, a poor but driven blacksmith’s son, as he grapples with romances and the question of whether to follow the mass exodus of German labourers to Brazil that was then in full swing (the film’s German title translates as “The Other Homeland”). Home from Home has all the glorious cinematography and dense plotting that we’ve come to expect from Heimat, but its discrete story ensures that it will appeal to newcomers too – as long as they can weather the running time.
One of the longest film series of all time just got four hours longer. German history between 1919 and 2000 had its fair share of incident, and it has taken monomaniacal filmmaker Edgar Reitz 32 films to chronicle the nation’s development from post-Versailles chaos to Europe’s leading economy. But what makes his Heimat series so compelling is its focus on a single family from a hilly region of the Rhineland: over the course of 53 hours, searingly emotional domestic dramas play out against the backdrop of political change.
Home from Home: Chronicle of A Vision
With Home from Home, Reitz has chosen not to extend his story up to the present day, but to wind back to the 1840s for an atmospheric prequel. We meet the family’s ancestor, a poor but driven blacksmith’s son, as he grapples with romances and the question of whether to follow the mass exodus of German labourers to Brazil that was then in full swing (the film’s German title translates as “The Other Homeland”). Home from Home has all the glorious cinematography and dense plotting that we’ve come to expect from Heimat, but its discrete story ensures that it will appeal to newcomers too – as long as they can weather the running time.
| What | Edgar Reitz' Home From Home: Chronicle of a Vision |
| Where | Various Locations | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Bond Street (underground) |
| When |
17 Apr 15 – 23 Jun 15, 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM |
| Price | £determined by cinema |
| Website | Click here to go to the film's IMDB page. |
