Brothers
About Brothers
Dockworkers and other amateurs restage the Hamburg harbor strike of 1896–97. Wages are small, housing is poor, and the winter makes it worse. One brother is a docker and the other a policeman; they meet when the police fight the strikers. The worker is arrested, the strike is called off, and the policeman quits. A red-tinted flag ends the film.
Cast & crew
More about Brothers
Werner Hochbaum wrote, directed, and produced his first feature for the dockworkers' union, with money from the SPD. Gustav Berger photographed exteriors in the Hamburg harbor in February 1929 and studio scenes at Vera-Filmwerke in Fuhlsbüttel. German censors passed it on April 19, 1929. It opened on April 28, 1929.
Themes
Background
The strike on screen ran for about eleven months in 1896–97. Hochbaum made the film while he was close to the Social Democratic Party.
Look
Gustav Berger shot the harbor exteriors and the studio scenes at Vera-Filmwerke.
Music
Silent, with German intertitles. A 2022 restoration uses a score by Martin Grütter.
Preservation
A restored print was shown at the Berlinale in 2022. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The negative is listed at 1,722 meters, timed at 76 minutes at 20 frames per second.
- Gyula Balogh is billed as a dockworker, Erna Schumacher as his wife, and Ilse Berger as the child. Most of the rest of the cast had not been in front of a camera.
- An opening title calls the film an attempt, with simple means, to make a proletarian picture.
- The German Wikipedia account includes solidarity money from Britain and Denmark.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Brüder (1929).webm)