Franz Xaver Stannebein (Jörg Gudzuhn), a young boy at the turn of the century, wants nothing more than to fly. He carries this obsessive dream into adulthood as a merchant in Spain. One day, he meets German industrialists who want to fund his idea, but they ask him to build an airfield in Spain first. When the Nazis use his designed field during the Spanish Civil War, Stannebein feels betrayed. To register his complaint, he goes to Germany.
After World War II, Stannebein’s grandson searches for him, and the trail leads to an asylum. Director Rainer Simon brought together an exceptional team to create DEFA’s most unconventional film, including Lutz Dammbeck (animation) and Friedrich Goldmann (score).Director: Rainer SimonEast-Germany 1982116 min.German with English subtitles
Introduction and Q&A with Mariana Ivanova
Mariana Ivanova is Associate Professor for German Film and Media and the Academic Director of the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst. Her scholarship focuses on 20th and 21st century German and European cinemas and cultures, theories of transnational filmmaking and coproduction, artistic networks and cultural mediation. Ivanova’s 2019 monograph, Cinema of Collaboration: DEFA Coproductions and International Exchange in Cold War Europe, was finalist for the international Willy Hass Award. She has published her research in several edited volumes about Central European cinema.
This film screening is part of the Goethe Institut's series "Happy Birthday! The DEFA Film Library Turns 30"
(re)discovering four film treasures from East Germany, followed by Q&A sessions with East German cinema experts. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on September 23, 1993, Prof. Barton Byg signed contracts with German partners that marked the official founding of the DEFA Film Library—the first and only archive and research center devoted to East German film culture outside Germany. In the three decades since, an enthusiastic team of faculty, staff and students has established the archive’s importance through groundbreaking film series, DVD and streaming releases, workshops, teaching guides and books. The biennial Summer Film Institutes hosted and organized by the DEFA Film Library have inspired new research trends in exploring East German film as part of German and international film history. The DEFA Film Library has also been a close curatorial partner of the international network of the Goethe-Institutes, collaborating on numerous film series and events. They are happy to celebrate this special birthday here in Boston with a four-part film program that brings together current and former members of the DEFA Film Library team to present and discuss lesser-known DEFA gems that are ripe for (re)discovery.
