My Mother, a War and Me
Meine Mutter, ein Krieg und ich
DIRECTORS: Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt COUNTRY: Germany YEAR: 2014 LANGUAGE(S): German, Russian, Ukrainian SUBTITLES: German RUNNING TIME: 78 min
SECTION: International Forum 2015
SYNOPSIS
A spectacular birth during the winter of 1942: A young Russian nurse is surprised by labor pains and has to give birth to her daughter Tamara in a field along the Volga, alone and in icy temperatures. In their most personal film to date, Tamara Trampe and Johann Feindt tell the story of the former’s family.
Old yellowed family photos show an easygoing life before the war, then the pretty, smiling mother in uniform, then Tamara as a child with serious, big eyes. Tamara Trampe never met her father, a former Russian officer. The directors go to Ukraine and gradually a well composed, poetically commentated picture unfolds. Trampe’s memories merge with those of her mother – who draws sarcastic conclusions at times – and with those of relatives and former Red Army nurses, becoming the story of a whole war generation.
“In her mother’s twilight years, a family history is warm-heartedly and movingly reappraised and a chronicle of the 20th century emerges. World War II left behind mental scars in the Ukraine under which more than one generation are suffering even almost 70 years after the conflict ended.” (Berlinale 2014)
TAMARA TRAMPE
Tamara Trampe was born in Voronezh, Russia, in 1942. She studied German Literature at Rostock University. From 1967 to 1969 she was editor of the arts section of the magazine ’Forum’ and from 1970 to 1990 a dramatic advisor at DEFA Studio for Feature Films in Babelsberg. As an independent filmmaker, writer and dramatic advisor since 1990, she took part in the production of many documentaries and teaches at film universities.
Trampe and Feindt have worked together on several projects, like IM GLANZE DIESES GLÜCKES (1990), DER SCHWARZE KASTEN (1991) and WHITE RAVENS – NIGHTMARE IN CHECHNYA (2005) which was selected for NIHRFF 2005.
FILMOGRAPHY
Ich war einmal ein Kind (1987), Der schwarze Kasten (1992), Weisse Raben – Alptraum Tschetschenien (2005), Wiegenlieder (2010), Meine Mutter, ein Krieg und ich (2014)
JOHANN FEINDT
Johann Feindt, born in Hamburg in 1951, studied medicine before taking up film at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) in 1976. Sine 1979 he has been directing, shooting and writing films like UNVERSÖHNLICHE ERINNERUNGEN (1979) and DER VERSUCH ZU LEBEN (1983), both awarded with several prices. In 2004 he received a Grimme-Prize for the documentary REPORTER VERMISST.
FILMOGRAPHY
Vergeßt es nie, wie es begann! Ernst Busch 1927-1948 (1978), Unversöhnliche Erinnerungen (1979), Der Versuch zu leben (1983), Aufstehen und Widersetzen (1983), Im Glanze dieses Glückes (1990), Der schwarze Kasten (1992), Wundbrand Sarajevo, 17 Tage im August (1994), Weisse Raben – Alptraum Tschetschenien (2005), Reporter vermisst (2003), Wiegenlieder (2010), Meine Mutter, ein Krieg und ich (2014)
SCRIPT: Tamara Trampe PRODUCER: Johann Feindt CAMERA: Johann Feindt EDITOR: Stephan Krumbiegel
PRODUCTION: Johann Feindt Filmproduktion, ZDF WORLD SALES: Ina Rossow, Deckert Distribution