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by Various Authors
grade: 7
A mainly contemplative mood is the leitmotif of Der Heideboden. A documentary of undoubted historical importance that, despite its rather elementary mise en scène, is a perfect witness to a bygone era in which cinema could only take on certain connotations. An era whose consequences were felt for many, many years. But also, at the same time, an era in which, despite everything, cinema did not stand still.
Free on the heath
There is a place – west of Lake Neusiedler in Burgenland – where vast plains and huge expanses of treeless green are reminiscent of the huge lowlands of neighbouring Hungary. It is a magical place where animals live free and happy and farmers devote themselves, quietly, to cultivating the land and breeding the beasts. This, then, is the place depicted in pictures in the documentary Der Heideboden (“the lands of the moor”), produced in 1933 by Österreich in Bild und Ton and recently re-presented to the audience by the Filmarchiv Austria, on the occasion of the online retrospective Kino auf Sommerfrische.
Der Heideboden, then, is part of a long series of documentaries made mainly between the 1930s and 1940s for purely propagandistic purposes. Because, in fact, at that time – and given Adolf Hitler’s recent rise to power – there was very little freedom of expression. At the same time, those who decided to stay in Austria or Germany had to submit to certain rules and what was primarily aimed at was giving the world an image of an Austria rich in history and natural beauty, where prosperity was part of everyday life.
With these aims, then, Der Heideboden saw the light. A work that, in wanting primarily to emphasise the importance of the earth and all that it can offer us, makes the heath itself its main actress. And immediately we are reminded of the feature film Earth, directed just three years earlier by the Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Dovzenko. Also intended for propaganda purposes, Earth also featured long shots of wide open spaces in which the frame was divided into three-quarters land and one-quarter sky, precisely to emphasise the importance of what nature has given us.
A similar approach was carried out during the making of Der Heideboden, where a large part of the frame is dedicated to the land. On it, as usual, farmers and breeders go about their daily activities, while oxen and horses graze and run happily, totally free.
A mainly contemplative mood, then, is the leitmotif of the entire work. A work of undoubted historical importance that, despite its rather elementary mise en-scène, stands as a perfect witness to a bygone era in which cinema could only take on certain connotations. An era whose consequences were felt for many, many years. But also, at the same time, an era in which, in spite of everything, cinema did not stop. And its achievements then, nowadays, have unquestionably taken on a magnetic appeal. Serene and melancholic at the same time.
Original title: Der Heideboden
Directed by: Various Authors
Country/year: Austria / 1933
Running time: 5’
Genre: documentary
Screenplay: Various Authors
Cinematography: Various Authors
Produced by: Österreich in Bild und Ton