I WAS NINETEEN (East Germany / 1968) 



Widely regarded as one of the most important postwar German filmmakers, Konrad Wolf (1925-1982) made thirteen theatrical features in his relatively brief career. Two of those were based on his war experiences as a member of the Red Army. (Wolf was only eight-years-old when his family was forced into exile due to his writer fathers anti-fascist activities. After becoming a Soviet citizen, he voluntarily ended up joining the army at the age of seventeen.) The first, and the most acclaimed, I Was Nineteen (Ich war neunzehn ) is partly sourced from the war diary Wolf kept against orders while serving as an interpreter. His surrogate is the eponymous nineteen-year-old who, for most of the film, roams the German countryside during the final weeks of WWII with an infantry division. A hotshot named Gregor (Jaecki Schwarz), his task involves calling on the last remnants of the Wehrmacht to capitulate instead of needlessly prolonging the battle. Episodically structured between April 16th and May 3rd, 1945, the script by the great Wolfgang Kohlhaase, one of the architects of the famous Berlin-Filme who collaborated with Wolf on four films, credibly brings forth numerous instances in which young Gregor is unwittingly forced to deal with issues regarding memory, language and identity. Whether it's due to the matter involving a young German girl (the only occasion the film hints toward the Soviet violations in Germany; after all, it was made under the watchful eyes of the authorities who had just banned nearly a dozen films after the notorious Eleventh Plenum), the tense negotiations at the Spandau Citadel, or when a severely wounded German soldier mistakes him for a comrade, the contradictory feelings evoked within Gregor, who isn't quite able to comprehend their nature, are skillfully mined. Neorealistically shot by Wolf's longtime DP Werner Bergmann, this contemplative and unsentimental effort was recently ranked by the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek among the 100 most significant German films of all time.