Stars

Stars (1959)

Sterne

Stationed in a secluded Bulgarian village in 1943, Walter – a German Wehrmacht sergeant and artist – lives in almost idyllic distance from the war. Then a transit camp is set up for Jews arriving from Greece. When Ruth, one of the internees, asks Walter to help a pregnant woman, the two form an unlikely bond.

Date of release
1959-03-23
TMDB
7.4 / 10 (29)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Drama, War
Director
Konrad Wolf

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Bulgaria

Stars is a 1959 film directed by Konrad Wolf. It tells the story of a Wehrmacht sergeant who falls in love with a Greek Jewish girl while overseeing Jewish prisoners in Bulgaria prior to their transfer to a concentration camp. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

Angel Wagenstein, the screenwriter, used his own experiences in the script. The character Blashe is based on him.

Originally, Kurt Maetzig was intended to be the director. However, he was against it, having already made Jewish fates in Marriage in the Shadows (Ehe im Schatten) and Girls in Gingham (Die Buntkarieten) and not wanting to be tied down to the same theme. Angel Wagenstein then suggested Konrad Wolf as a director, whom he knew from their joint studies together in Moscow.

For the role of Ruth, the Israeli actress Haya Harareet was cast. However, she withdrew her commitment when she received an invitation from Hollywood. Tatiana Samoilova, who was intended to be a replacement per Konrad Wolf’s suggestion, was not available for health reasons. The beginning of the filming was getting closer and closer, and there was still no lead actress found.

The film was shot in the late summer of 1958 in the surrounding area of Sofia, Bulgaria. It premiered soon after on March 27, 1959, at the Haus der Berliner and Babylon Cinema in Berlin.

Initially, the film was not allowed to be shown in Bulgarian due to its abstract humanism, especially because it did not distinguish between the Jewish bourgeoisie and the Jewish proletariat. After the film won the special prize at the Cannes Film Festival, it was finally shown in Bulgaria, without any of the accusations being revoked. The film was also not allowed to be shown in the Soviet Union and Israel.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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