Morituri (1948 film)
| Morituri | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Eugen York |
| Produced by | Artur Brauner Jelka Naber |
| Written by | Artur Brauner Gustav Kampendonk |
| Starring | Lotte Koch |
| Cinematography | Werner Krien |
| Editing by | Walter Wischniewsky |
| Release date(s) | 24 September 1948 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
Morituri is a 1948 film produced by the German film production company, CCC Film. It was called Freiwild in Austria.[1] was directed by Eugen York and starred Lotte Koch. It features the onscreen debut of German actor Klaus Kinski[2] as a Dutch concentration camp prisoner.[1] The title comes from the Latin expression Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant. The story was based in part on the life of producer Artur Brauner and tells of the escape of Nazi concentration camp prisoners and how they manage to hide and evade recapture, though faced with constant danger and starvation.[1]
The film premiered on August 28, 1948 at the Venice Film Festival in Lido di Venezia, Italy and was screened in Hamburg, Germany a month later and released at the Neues Scala Kino in Berlin on November 16, 1948.[1] The film was a commercial disaster, with audiences hissing and booing. A theater in Hamburg was vandalized, after which other theater owners, fearful of reprisal by Nazi sympathizers, refused to show the film.[3]
Morituri was aired on German television station ZDF on April 7, 1991.[1] In 2009, the film was donated to Yad Vashem along with 20 other Holocaust-related films produced by Artur Brauner.[4][5]
[edit] Cast
- Lotte Koch - Lydia
- Hilde Körber - Irre
- Winnie Markus - Maria Bronek
- Catja Görna - Stascha Sokol
- Josef Sieber - Eddy
- Walter Richter - Dr. Leon Bronek
- Carl-Heinz Schroth - Armand
- Siegmar Schneider - Gerhard Tenborg
- Peter Marx - Pjotr, Russe
- Alfred Cogho - Roy, Kanadier
- Joseph Almas - (as Josef Almas)
- Ellinor Saul-Gerlach - Lucie, seine Tochter (as Ellinor Saul)
- Ursula Bergmann - Ruth, seine Tochter
- Willy Prager - Vater Simon
- Annemarie Hase - Mutter Simon
- Karl Vibach - Georg, deutscher Soldat
- Bob Kleinmann - Janek, 12 Jahre
- Michael Günther - Wladek, 16 Jahre
- Erich Dunskus - Sokol, polnischer Bauer
- David Minster - Der Invalide
- Franja Kamienietzka - Frau Steppan
- Klaus Kinski - Dutch prisoner
- Gabriele Heßmann - Die Schwangere
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e "Morituri" Fritz Bauer Institut / Cinematography of the Holocaust. Retrieved March 2, 2012
- ^ Lyman, Rick. "Morituri". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/140620/Morituri/overview. Retrieved October 18, 2008.
- ^ William Boston, "Burying the Past" Time (October 1, 2003). Retrieved February 29, 2012
- ^ "German film producer to receive Yad Vashem honour" Deutsche Presse-Agentur (2010). Retrieved March 1, 2012
- ^ Liat Benhabib and Mimi Ash, "Visual Center Receives Artur Brauner Film Collection" (PDF) Yad Vashem Jerusalem Quarterly Magazine Vol. 57, (April 2010), p. 20. Retrieved March 1, 2012
[edit] External links
- Morituri at the Internet Movie Database
