The Rabbit Is Me

The Rabbit Is Me
Directed by	Kurt Maetzig
Produced by	Martin Sonnabend
Written by	Manfred Bieler Kurt Maetzig
Starring	Angelika Waller
Music by	Reiner Bredemeyer, Gerhard Rosenfeld
Cinematography	Erich Gusko
Editing by	Helga Krause
Distributed by	PROGRESS-Film Verleih
Release date(s)	26 October 1965 (1965-10-26)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	East Germany
Language	German

The Rabbit Is Me (German: Das Kaninchen bin ich) is an East German drama film directed by Kurt Maetzig.^[1] It was filmed in 1965, and based on the novel by Manfred Bieler.

Plot

The 19-year-old Maria Morzeck dreams of studying Slavistics, but her hopes are shattered when her brother, Dieter, is sent to prison after being convicted of sedition against the state. She cannot enter university, and turns to work as a waitress. Maria meets and falls in love with Paul Deisler, an older, married man who turns out to be the judge who convicted her brother. Their affair ends when Deisler is exposed as hypocritical and corrupt. After Dieter's release, he learns of his sister's relationship with the judge and assaults her. Eventually, Maria decides to distance herself from both of them, and determines to pursue her old wish.

Cast

• Angelika Waller as Maria Morzeck
• Alfred Müller as Paul Deister
• Ilse Voigt as aunt Hete
• Wolfgang Winkler as Dieter Morzeck
• Irma Münch as Gabriele Deister
• Rudolf Ulrich as Grambov
• Helmut Schellhardt as the mayor
• Annemarie Esper as Edith
• Willi Schrade as Ulli
• Willi Narloch as Oscar

Production

The film was based on Manfred Bieler's book Maria Morzeck or the Rabbit is Me. It was made in the aftermath of the VI Party Congress of the Socialist Unity Party at January 1963, during which the establishment allowed a measure of liberalization in the cultural life of East Germany. Although Bieler's novel was highly critical of the court system, he and Maetzig took care to include several "alibi scenes" in the film that were intended to put the state in a better light and also prevent the banning of the picture. The scenes were also meant to present the judicial reforms that took place between 1961 and 1963.^[2]

Reception

The short era of liberalization ended gradually when Leonid Brezhnev took power in the Soviet Union and introduced a conservative, more repressive course on cultural questions. The film, alongside eleven other cinematic works that were deemed politically damaging, was banned by the Central Committee of the SED in its XI Plenum, at December 1965.^[3]It was only made legal again in 1990.^[4] The banned films were known as "cellar films" or "rabbit films" - the second sobriquet was derived from the film's title.

At 1990, shortly before the collapse of the Eastern Block, the picture was released for public screening, and presented in the Berlin and Locarno film festivals. It was elected as one of the 100 most important German films at 1995 by a group of historians and critics.^[5]

Daniela Berghahn noted that The Rabbit is Me was unprecedented in its portrayal of judicial corruption, sexual themes and criticism of the East German establishment.^[6]

References

1. ^ Poss, Ingrid (2006). Spur der Filme: Zeitzeugen über die DEFA. Ch. Links Verlag. pp. 202–05. ISBN 9783861534013. http://books.google.com/books?id=6ktAmpvZ7RwC&pg=PA202. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
2. ^ Joshua Feinstein. The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949-1989. ISBN 978-0807853856. Pages 158-175.
3. ^ Allan, Seán; Sandford, John (1999). DEFA: East German cinema, 1946-1992. Berghahn Books. p. 146. ISBN 9781571817532. http://books.google.com/books?id=3xDwYDJlklkC&pg=PA146. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
4. ^ Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim (30 December 2009). The concise Cinegraph: encyclopaedia of German cinema. Berghahn Books. p. 304. ISBN 9781571816559. http://books.google.com/books?id=z7gFT_Duq1cC&pg=PA304. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
5. ^ The Rabbit is Me on PROGRESS-Film Verleih.
6. ^ Daniela Berghahn. Hollywood behind the Wall: the cinema of East Germany. ISBN 978-0719061721. Pages 150-161.

Literature

• Günter Adge (Hrsg.): Kahlschlag. Das 11. Plenum des ZK der SED. Studien und Dokumente. 2. erweiterte Auflage. Aufbau Taschenbuch, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7466-8045-X.
• Christiane Mückenberger (Hrsg.): Prädikat: Besonders schädlich. Filmtexte. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00478-4.
• Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (Hrsg.): Spur der Filme. Zeitzeugen über die DEFA. Links, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-401-0, (Schriftenreihe der DEFA-Stiftung).
• Neues Deutschland, 6. Januar 1966.
• Frankfurter Rundschau 1990.

External links

• The Rabbit Is Me at the Internet Movie Database
• original 1965 poster on ostfilm.de.