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Schultze Gets the Blues

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Schultze Gets the Blues
Directed byMichael Schorr
Written byMichael Schorr
Produced byJens Körner
StarringHorst Krause,
Karl Fred Müller
Distributed byParamount Classics (USA)
Release date
September 2, 2003
Running time
114 minutes
LanguageGerman

Schultze Gets the Blues is a 2003 film directed and written by Michael Schorr.

Plot

Schultze (played by Horst Krause) is a large, recently retired salt-miner living in Teutschenthal (near Halle, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany). Along with his also laid-off friends Jürgen and Manfred, he finds himself restless with so much spare time.

For years, he has played traditional polka music on his accordion, but a series of upheavals in his life inspire an interest in American Zydeco and Cajun music. Though being afraid of travelling to the USA at the beginning he accepts his music club's wish to represent it at a German folk music festival in New Braunfels, Texas.

But instead of appearing there he chooses to travel in a motor boat around the countryside despite speaking little English, immersing himself in the music and culture of the Bayou. Finally, among his newly found friends he becomes very sick and presumably dies. Back in Teutschenthal a funeral is held for Schultze which turns into a descent and mildly happy celebration of his life: "Herr, lehre uns Bedenken, dass wir alle einmal sterben müssen, auf das wir im Leben klug werden" - "Lord, teach us to understand we all have to die sometime, that we become wiser in our lives" (Psalm 90,12).