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1981
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1753-6421
  • E-ISSN: 1753-643X

Abstract

This article explores the adaptation of Peter Henisch’s novel made by Wolfgang Glück. The film produced by three (Austrian, West German and Hungarian) television companies focuses on conversations between father and son that relate to the Nazi past of the latter. What initially was planned as a biographical novel, in the end, became an intermedial work drawing on literature, a magnetic tape containing a recorded oral testimony, photography and film. In this article, I examine the film’s narration and reception to demonstrate that it was one of the first Austrian movies to deal directly with the ambiguous role ordinary Austrians played in National Socialism, which in fact preceded the political debate on Austria’s past generated by the election of Kurt Waldheim to the president’s office in 1986. The analysis of the film was possible thanks to the research conducted in the Austrian National Library in Vienna and the Archives of the Bavarian Television (BR) in Munich.

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2024-07-22
2024-10-03
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