Synopsis:
Christiane from the GDR and Hatem from Syria meet while studying in Moscow. They love each other and have a child together. During their studies they overcome many difficulties together, but now the question arises as to what will become of them afterwards. Hatem explains to Christiane that, as a woman, she has no job opportunities in her profession in his home country. She suggests that Hatem go with her to the GDR. But he refuses – on the grounds that he cannot betray his country. The two separate.
This film by director Iris Gusner, who grew up in Leipzig and the surrounding area, has been unjustly overlooked in the memory of the legacy of the GDR film studio DEFA. This also applies to other Gusner films, many of which deal with the lives of working women in everyday life in the GDR. In “Wäre die Erde nicht rund…”, she also deals with her own experiences: As a student at the Moscow film school VGIK, she fell in love with a fellow student from Iraq. The couple had a daughter in 1965 – Amina Gusner, who today works as a director and actress in Germany and Austria. This biographical connection can be read about in “Start in Moskau”, in which Iris Gusner records her own memories as well as those of fellow students in Moscow.
Alongside Bärbl Bergmann, Ingrid Reschke, Evelyn Schmidt and Hannelore Unterberg, Iris Gusner is one of the few female DEFA feature film directors. For all of them, they have so far played a rather subordinate role in the memory of DEFA film heritage.
In Gusner’s case, this also continues a politically motivated suppression of some of her work, which the GDR censorship regime once initiated.
Her directorial debut “Die Taube auf dem Dach” is one of DEFA’s so-called “Kellerfilme”. The film was made in the fall and winter of 1972, was banned after completion and only premiered in 1990.
In 1973, Gusner wrote the screenplay for the film “Einer trage des anderen Last” based on a novel by Wolfgang Held. The subject matter deals with the conflict between a Christian and a Marxist. The director Lothar Warneke expressed interest, but withdrew – and Iris Gusner was not approved as a director by the film headquarters. The script disappears into a drawer until Lothar Warneke realizes it in 1987. Iris Gusner’s name no longer appears in the credits for the film, whose release in 1988 caused a sensation in the GDR.
In the summer of 1989, Iris Gusner never returned to the GDR from a trip to the West.
Waere.die.Erde.nicht.rund.1981.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-KG.mkv
General
Container: Matroska
Runtime: 1 h 30 min
Size: 3.60 GiB
Video
Codec: x264
Resolution: 1920x1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Frame rate: 24.000 fps
Bit rate: 5 508 kb/s
BPP: 0.111
Audio
#1: German 2.0ch AAC LC @ 192 kb/s
Language(s):German
Subtitles:None
The post Iris Gusner – Wäre die Erde nicht rund… (1981) first appeared on Cinema of the World.