Heimat Reviews

Excellent Epic

Heimat was a German TV series directed by Edgar Reitz.

It follows the fortunes of Scabbach - a fictional village - and in particular the Simon family during the period 1919 to the early eighties. We follow the family as they grow up, grow apart, find love and reunite after long absences. The story is played out against some important events; the first telephones, private cars, the first highway that bypasses the village, the rise of the Hitler Youth and the world wars. There are many interesting story lines woven through this epic, particularly as various family members set out to make something of themselves in the world.

The series is presented on six DVDs each containing one or more episodes. There is a mixture of black-and-white and colour, sometimes within the same scene. The Audio language is German, subtitied in English.

There are many moving and poignant scenes, this is well worth the marathon effort to watch.

Draws you in

HEIMAT (HOMELAND)

Edgar Reitz, Germany, 1984 - 2004

Why would you want to spend hours on end watching episodes of an arthouse soap that chronicles German history - from 1918 onwards - through the eyes of a Rhineland hausfrau and family?

Well, as with all good serials, director Edgar Reitz seizes the viewer's attention and always leaves us with questions to which we simply have to know the answers.

Moreover, he ensures that the events and emotions that his characters experience are familiar to us all, thus persuading us to identify with their passions, ambitions, frustrations, triumphs and regrets.

Reitz succeeds in juggling numerous plotlines without resorting to melodrama or caricature. He's also supported by an excellent cast, whose natural performances draw you in to the key social, political and cultural issues that impacted across the entire continent.

Glorious Heimat

From it's haunting score to the dreamy expressionistic core, this is one of the finest. Beautifully acted and paced, a must-see for all.

Recommended sweet

Well, I would highly recommend this Heimat series to anyone who wants a real and simple film. It's refreshing to see this saga develop because it takes you from right after WWI through to the mid-80's in Germany.

My husband mother who's German says that it was a chronicle made out of pure passion and the village really does exist, and the family saga is true and the 'actors' are unknown but are from the village portrayed in the film. And, I've seen worse actors who have studied their profession than these actors - they are very good indeed. Very natural - very real!

It's just a sweet, simple story of a family - kind of like watching Dynasty without all the hoopla, glitz, and glamour.

A closer view on German History

Edgar Reitz's Heimat series provides an unemotional account of German history after 1935 that it is not dominated by clichés and stereotypes. It examines everyday life in a rural German town and focuses on the characters living in a remote village in the "hunsrueck" hills. This series shows the human side of each protagonist, whose lives are predominantly determined by the challenges of rural life and hard labour.

However, the true benefit of this series is, that it shows how National socialism and Nazi ideology made its way to the remotest corners of Germany. The series avoids making over simplistic judgements about the integrity of the protagonists, but rather shows the aspirations each individual had with the Nazi movement- some having oversized political ambitions, others seeking to escape the "political circus" by internal immigration.

I can truly recommend this series to anyone, who has ambitions to understand German and European history beyond WWII battle grounds.

Realisation of Pre-Nazi Germany

Starting at the end of the 1st World War, it describes significant happenings to characters in a small village in southern Germany. It is straightforward and convincing.

As a teacher, I'd show it to students of 11-14 years. I'd like to know of an equivalent film of an English village.

Heimat a little known Classic

There is really no film I can think of quite like this. All I can think is that it is like a cross between a soap and the best film you have ever seen.

Sadly my writing skills are inadequate to describe the breadth, beauty and real feeling of joy and loss running through this masterpiece.

It is not SUPPOSED to be about Nazis

For those who want to watch a film about the rise of the Nazis, don't watch Heimat. It is instead about how actual people lived during that time, before, and several years after. The people of Shabbach and the Simon family are its main focus, and all the mundane, frustrating, amazing and downright bonkers and funny things that happen to them, as happens to any real family. That said it does not ignore the Nazis, but to give you an idea of how it deals with that, it focuses more on how people in the village start sporting 'trendy' moustaches and uniforms because it is the thing to do rather than they are all political animals. In fact they are just normal people and you can understand immediately how things happened they way they did for the Germans during this time.

Crucially this also does not paint 'good' characters or 'bad' - they are all flawed, again just like real people. A great series, and totally recommended.

[Highly rated reviewer]

German Roots

Heimat caused a stir. There were debates in the press, blogs and fan clubs on the internet. Was it a masterpiece or just a soap opera? Most controversy was about how the programmes dealt with the war, the Nazis and the Holocaust.

The war was there but was hardly dealt with (the Holocaust touched upon in a couple of sentences of dialogue); blink and you’d miss it. I can see why people may take umbrage but there again, the largest European war in history may well have come and gone, leaving a quiet corner of rural Germany untouched: I don’t know, I wasn’t there.

So is it just an every day tale of country folk? No, there’s more to it than this. The passage of time gives greater poignancy to all the people’s actions and some events I found very moving: Paul’s walk with Maria before they wed was one for me. The way things were not explained (the dead woman in the woods, Paul’s reasons for leaving) made it very life-like.

So, a masterpiece or a soap opera? A bit of both: an epic soap opera, I suppose, like a German version of Alex Hayley’s Roots (about African Americans, also made in the 1980s?). But what governed black & white or colour … can anyone explain?

[Highly rated reviewer]

yawn

too slow for me and didn't like the back and forth from colour to black & white