ID

FBW002875      Fiction

Country / Year

Germany, 1998

Original Title

Viehjud Levi

Other Title(s)

Jew-Boy Levi / Cattle Jew Levi [engl.]

Directed by

Didi Danquart

Produced by

Zero Film, Berlin

Staff

Producer: Martin Hagemann; Production manager: Wernfried Natter-Conradi; Script: Didi Danquart, Martina Döcker; Based on: Thomas Strittmatter (Bühnenstück); Camera: Johann Feindt; Editing: Katja Dringenberg; Sound: Paul Oberle, Matz Müller; Art direction: Susanne Hopf (Szenenbild); Costumes: Inge Heer, Ingrid Weiss; Music: Cornelius Schwehr

Cast

Bruno Cathomas (Levi); Caroline Ebner (Lisbeth Horger); Ulrich Noethen (Ingenieur Kohler); Martina Gedeck (Fräulein Neuner); Bernd Michael Lade (Paul Braxmaier); Georg Olschewsky (Horger Bauer); Eva Mattes (Kresenz Horger); Günther Knecht (Marties); Alexander May (Wirt); Stefan Merki (Hinke-Karle); Peter Luppa (Buckel-Philipp)

Length

95'

Format

35mm/farbe/1:1,85

Dates

- 12 Feb 1999: Premiere, Berlin (49. Internationale Filmfestspiele, Kino 7, 29. Internationales Forum des Jungen Films)

Abstract

1935. A valley in the Black Forest. Levi, the cattle dealer, arrives in the valley to do business, as he does each year. This year, he also wants to court Lisbeth Horger to win her hand in marriage. But the valley has changed. The engineer Fabian Kohler and a group of railway workers have been sent from Berlin by the Reichsbahn, the National Railway, to repair damage in a train tunnel. They introduce a new spirit to the closed-off world of the Black Forest valley. Lisbeth is faced with decistions, either to remain in a relationship with her boyfriend Paul Braxmeier or to choose Levi. Almost imperceptibly, the other valley inhabitants also enter the new era. Farmer Horger will no longer sell his cattle to the Jew Levi. Swastika flags appear on the pub tables, Levi's car tyres are slashed. A familiar world has become hostile and strange. Nobody sticks up for Levi. Except Lisbeth.

Subject Terms

1930-1939; 1940-1949; 1990-1999; Anti-Semitism; Deutsche Reichsbahn; Swastika; Jews; Persecution of the Jews