Village passions Perhaps the most popular genre in post-war German cinema was the so-called haymat films (heimatfilme). The name of the genre comes from the German word heimat (Homeland). Such films almost always take place in the countryside against the backdrop of beautiful idyllic landscapes, and the plots touch on eternal themes – love, friendship, family, rivalry. Heroes of haymat-movies were clearly divided into positive and negative, and at the end of the audience certainly waited for a happy ending. Viewing such pictures allowed the audience for an hour and a half to distract from everyday worries and immerse themselves in the lives of fictional characters.
In Hans Deppe’s film Son Without a Homeland, the word heimat appears in the title. The plot of the film tells about the elderly owner of the hotel Wilhelm Hartman. The wife urges the old man to write a will in favor of Berthold, her son from his first marriage. One day, four musicians arrive in the village, and Wilhelm notices the resemblance of one of them, Robert, with his longtime lover Martha. Every day he becomes more convinced that Robert is his illegitimate son. Meanwhile, a young man falls in love with the daughter of the couple Hartman – Christelle, unaware that she may be his half-sister.
The film is not too demanding melodrama with not the most original plot, but the main interest here is the performer of the role of innkeeper - Werner Kraus. He became famous in the era of silent cinema, playing roles in the most famous films of German expressionism – “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, “Tartuff”, “Prague Student”. Kraus was rarely filmed in sound films, and after World War II, because of cooperation with the Nazi regime, he was excommunicated for several years. The film “Son without a Motherland” was his last work for cinema.
5 out of 10