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14 - Diaries of the Great War is an international documentary drama series about World War I. It uses a mix of fictionalized scenes, archive footage, and animation. All episodes were directed by Jan Peter, series authors were Jan Peter and Yury Winterberg[1]. In a dramatic advisory capacity, Dutch producer and screenwriter Maarten van der Duin and BBC-author Andrew Bampfield worked on the film's development. The series is based on an idea by Gunnar Dedio, producer at the film company LOOKS Leipzig and Ulrike Dotzer, the Head of Department ARTE at Norddeutscher Rundfunk.


Story

The individual episodes of the series tell the story of the First World War, not from the perspective of politicians and the military; but from the perspective of soldiers, housewives, factory workers, nurses and children. In total there are 14 main characters. Meaningful scenes from their lives are re-enacted and intertwined. The result is not only a political or military history of the First World War, but a story that poignantly captures the feelings and moods of the people.

Produktion

Constructing trenches in the no-man's-landin Saint-Jerôme, Quebèc
Director Jan Peter and cinematographer during production in Canada

The series was produced by LOOKS Film Leipzig,[2] Les Films d’ici Paris und Filmoption International Montreal.

Development

The scripts are based on quotes from diaries and letters from men and women who experienced World War I in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the United States, who wrote during the period from 1914 to 1918. More than 1,000 journals and collections of letters were examined and 14 moving stories of World War I were selected from this compilation. Overall, the selection of the diaries and subsequent development work took four years.

Archive Footage

The series uses cinematic and photographic archive material from a total of 71 archives in 21 countries. Most material came from British Pathé (United Kingdom), Gaumont Pathé (France), Krasnogorsk (Russia), Bundesfilmarchiv (Germany), Österreichisches Filmmuseum, the National Archives and Records Administration (USA) and the Imperial War Museum.

Shooting

Russian hospital at Frœschwiller chateau

The series was filmed in France, Canada and Germany.[3] Filming took place over a total of 50 shooting days

The French part of the shoot took place in and around Strasbourg. Among the location were the historical baths, an abandoned brewery and the chateau of Frœschwiller.[4]

The Canadian part of the shoot took place in the province of Québec. Among the locations were an old quarry north of Montreal, where a trench system, complete with accompanying No-Man's-Land was constructed.

Team

Director Jan Peter
Authors Jan Peter, Yury Winterberg, Maarten van der Duin, Andrew Bampfield, Stephan Falk, Florian Huber
Cinematography Jürgen Rehberg
Music Laurent Eyquem
Production Design Patric Valverde, Michel Marsolais
Costume Design Valerie Adda
Editing & Graphics Design Susanne Schiebler
Editing Martin Schröder, Jasmin Hoffhaus

Main Characters

Sarah Broom Macnaughtan

Sarah Broom Macnaughtan was born on the 26th of October, 1864 in Partick, Scotland. Already having served in the Boer War, the British woman had experience as a nurse. In 1914, when assistants were being sought for the British Army in Belgium, she volunteered. In 1915 she witnessed the first gas attack at Ypres. Macnaughtan died on the 24th of July, 1916 at the age of 51 years.

Charles Edward Montague

Charles Edward Montague was born of the 1st of January 1867, the son of a Roman Catholic priest and grew up in London. After graduating, he became a journalist. Montague was anti-war and a pacifist - until the summer of 1914. Despite his 47 years, he volunteered for the war effort. After the war he resumed his journalistic career but retired shortly after in order to spend his old age as a writer. Charles Edward Montague died on the 28th of May, 1928 at the age of 61 years. [5]

Käthe Kollwitz

Käthe Kollwitz was born on the 8th of July, 1867 in Königsberg. The well-known German artist was an avowed socialist and pacifist. But when the war began, the 47 year-old could not elude the patriotic spirit of optimism in Germany. Her son Peter volunteered for military service and marched into Belgium in 1914. Käthe Kollwitz died on the 22nd of April 1945 in Moritzburg at the age of 77 years, a few days before the end of World War II.

Ethel Cooper

Ethel Cooper was born on the 24th of December, 1871 in North Adelaide. Between 1897 and 1906, she studied music in Leipzig , but returned temporarily to Australia . From 1911, Leipzig becomes her adopted home. When the war broke out, she found herself suddenly considered a foreign enemy. She was spied on and suffered from hunger and disease, but she was not allowed to leave the country. Caroline Ethel Cooper died on the 25th of May 1961 in Malvern, Australia at the age of 90.[6]

Louis Barthas

Louis Barthas (1879–1952)

Louis Barthas was born the son of a barrel maker and a seamstress on the 14th of July, 1879 in the French wine-growing region of Languedoc. He took up his father's profession. At 35 years of age Barthas was recruited into the reservational army. In the last days of 1914 he found himself on one of the most dangerous sections of the German-French front and experienced the horrors of trench warfare. After the war, he began work as a barrel maker once again. Barthas died on the 4th of May 1952 at the age of 72 years.

Karl Kasser

Karl Kasser was born in 1889 in the Lower Austrian town of Kilb. Despite a hand injury, the 25- year-old farmer was deemed fit for military service. Reluctantly, he had to enlist in early 1915. He was captured by the Russians during fighting on the Eastern Front. This was the beginning of a multi-year odyssey throughout the Tsarist Empire which only ended on the 4th of October, 1920. Karl Kasser died in 1976 at the age of 87 years.[7]

Gabrielle West

Gabrielle West was born in 1890 . For the young woman from a wealthy British family, it was only natural to serve her country through volunteer work . She becomes a guard in a munitions factory, where she is confronted with the terrible working conditions of the women there. Her date of death is unknown.

Paul Pireaud

Paul Pireaud was born in 1890 in southwestern France. At the beginning of the war, Marie and Paul Pireaud were a young couple. But the young farmer was separated for a long time from his wife, Marie, by the war. His only connection to her was the field post. In his letters he tells of the suffering of the soldiers at the front. After many years together with his wife, Paul Pireaud died in 1970 shortly before his 80th birthday.

Marie Pireaud

Marie Pireaud was born in 1892 near Paris. At the beginning of the war, Marie and Paul Pireaud were a happy, young couple. However, when her husband went to war, Marie had to do the hard work on the farm. In her very personal letters to Paul she writes about her jealousy and her great desire for intimacy, tenderness and a child. Later the couple give birth to a son. But there are unfortunately no grandchildren who might remember the love of the two. Marie Pireaud died eight years after her husband in September 1978 at the age of 86 years.

Vincenzo D’Aquila

Vincenzo D' Aquila was born on the 2nd of November, 1893 in Sicily. After the emigration of his parents, he grew up in the United States. In the spring of 1915, the 22 year old travelled with a ship full of volunteers to Europe. The volunteers were young men who wanted to fight for their ancient homeland Italy. D' Aquila died on the 26th of July, 1971 at the age of 78 years.

Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger (1895–1998)

Ernst Jünger was born on the 29th of March, 1895 in Heidelberg. The then high school student, who later became a writer, signed up for military service in August 1914. At the end of 1914, he was assigned to the front in France. He survived several battles before the end of the war in 1918, including the bloody battles of the Somme. He died in 1998 at the age of 102 years at the hospital in Riedlingen.

Marina Yurlova

Marina Yurlova was born in 1900 in a small village in the Caucasus. The daughter of a colonel of the Kuban Cossacks was just 14 years old when her father went to war in August 1914. In the search for her father, she became a child soldier in the Russian army. In 1917 she became wrapped up into the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In 1984 Marina Yurlova died at the age of 84 years.

Elfriede Kuhr

Elfriede Alice Kuhr (known as Piete) was born on the 25th of April, 1902 in the German - Polish border town of Pila, about 100 kilometers from the border with Russia. At the beginning of the war, the 12 -year-old girl, who lived with her grandmother, celebrated the German victories; but then Elfriede experienced how the war brought suffering and misery. She died on the 29th of March, 1989 at the age of 86 years.[8]

Yves Congar

Yves Congar was born on the 8th of April, 1904 in Sedan in northern France, where he grew up well protected until the age of ten. In 1914, he had to experience the German invasion and beginning of a four-year occupation of his hometown. Later he would become a Catholic theologian and cardinal. Yves Congar died on the 22nd of June, 1995 at the age of 91 years in Paris.

Cast

The 14 main characters of the series are played by the following actors.

Character Actor
Charles Edward Montague David Acton
Marie Pireaud Emilie Aubertot
Sarah Macnaughtan Celia Bannerman
Louis Barthas Mikaël Fitoussi
Ethel Cooper Megan Gay
Käthe Kollwitz Christina Große
Paul Pireaud Lazare Herson-Macarel
Ernst Jünger Jonas Friedrich Leonhardi
Vincenzo d‘Aquila Jacopo Menicagli
Elfriede Kuhr Elisa Monse
Karl Kasser David Oberkogler
Yves Congar Antoine de Prekel
Gabrielle M. West Naomi Sheldon
Marina Yurlova Natalia Witmer

Budget and Broadcast

The series is one of the most elaborate docudrama formats ever co-produced in Germany and was already sold in more than 25 countries worldwide before broadcast. The budget for the German version alone was around 6 million euros [9], for all the international versions together the budget was closer to 8 million euros.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War the television broadcaster, ARTE, will broadcast an eight-part series beginning on the 29th of April, 2014 in parallel in Germany and France. [10] In Germany, Partners of the series are, next to ARTE - SWR, NDR and WDR, ORF in Austria and the BBC in the UK. The ARD / ORF will broadcast the series in four episodes of 45 minutes each. The BBC will show “14 - Diaries of the First World War” under the title "Great War Diary" in three episodes of 60 minutes [11].

List of Episodes

This list of episodes contains the eight episodes of the drama series “14 - Diaries of the First World War”, sorted by date first screened on ARTE.

No. Title Directed By Written By Original Air Date Viewers
1"The Abyss"Jan PeterJan Peter, Yury WinterbergApril 29, 2014 (2014-04-29)N/A
In the records of the young Cossack Marina Yurlova, the Austrian farmer Karl Kasser and the children Yves Congar and Elfriede Kuhr, who are experiencing the outbreak of war at home, there is little room for jubilant patriotism. The episode describes how everyday life collapsed with the beginning of the war, together with the inflammatory speeches of a teacher and the heroic portrayals of the first days of the war.
2"The Onslaught"Jan PeterJan PeterApril 29, 2014 (2014-04-29)N/A
3"The Anguish"Jan PeterJan Peter, Yury WinterbergMay 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)N/A
4"The Heart's Desire"Jan PeterJan Peter, Yury WinterbergMay 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)N/A
5"The Annihilation"Jan PeterJan Peter, Yury Winterberg, Stephan FalkMay 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)N/A
6"The Home Front"Jan PeterYury Winterberg, Jan PeterMay 13, 2014 (2014-05-13)N/A
7"The Uprising"Jan PeterJan Peter, Florian HuberMay 13, 2014 (2014-05-13)N/A
8"The Tipping Point"Jan PeterJan PeterMay 13, 2014 (2014-05-13)N/A

Music

The score was created by French Canadian composer Laurent Eyquem. Choir pieces were recorded in Prague.

DVD and Blu-Ray

The German edition of the series is being released on May 14th, 2014 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.[12]

Radio Feature

Beginning on the 9th of March, 2014 the WDR broadcast a six part, eponymous Radio Documentary by Christine Sievers and Nicolaus Schröder. This series is based and created in collaboration with the TV series.[13]

Accompanying Books

The series is accompanied by a coffee table book, which is being published by BBC Books in the United Kingdom, and Bucher Verlag in Germany. In eight chapters, the book presents high resolution photographs, which were colorized prior and during World War I. Each photo is accompanied by a diary quote. The foreword is written by Peter Englund. [14]

The accompanying book "Der grosse Krieg" by Oliver Janz was published in October 2013 by Campus Verlag. [15]

References

  1. ^ "Drehstart zu einzigartigem Filmprojekt am 13. Mai im Elsass". Pressemitteilung vom. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  2. ^ "14 – Diaries of the Great War on the LOOKS website". Retrieved 2014-04-27.
  3. ^ "14 – Tagebücher des Ersten Weltkriegs: Das Making of zum Vierteiler im Ersten". Retrieved 2014-03-17.
  4. ^ "Wie Karl Kasser den Krieg erlebte". Retrieved 2014-03-18.
  5. ^ "Charles_Edward_Montague". Retrieved 2014-03-17.
  6. ^ "Australian Dictionary of Biography". Retrieved 2014-03-18.
  7. ^ "Diary of Karl Kasser" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  8. ^ "Jo Mihaly – Einer von ihnen". Retrieved 2014-03-17.
  9. ^ "Von der Leichenbahre in die Psychiatrie". FAZ. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
  10. ^ "14 – Tagebücher des Ersten Weltkriegs bei ARTE". Retrieved 2014-03-18.
  11. ^ "14 - Diaries of the Great War at the BBC". Retrieved 2014-03-19.
  12. ^ "14 – Diaries of the Great War". Amazon DE. Retrieved 2014-03-17.
  13. ^ "Hördokumentation im WDR". Retrieved 2014-03-18.
  14. ^ "Accompanying Coffee Table Book". Retrieved 2014-03-19.
  15. ^ "Begleitbuch von Oliver Janz". Retrieved 2014-04-27.