Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness
2820 E 33rd St, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Minneapolis,
MN
55406
Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness (Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück, Dir. Piel Jutzi, 1929, DCP, 133 min).
Set in the tenements of Northern Berlin amidst the economic turmoil of 1929, this bold experiment in social melodrama tells a story of precarity and political awakening through the eyes of a young working-class woman. Inspired by the graphic art of Heinrich Zille and advised by Käthe Kollwitz, the film combines documentary footage of Berlin's "Red Wedding" district with a socially engaged narrative modeled after the cinema of Soviet Russia. One of the first films produced by Prometheus-Film, a socialist production firm headed by the charismatic propagandist Willi Münzenberg, Mother Krause can be viewed as a forerunner to Slatan Dudow's Kuhle Wampe (1932), a classic of proletarian cinema whose message continues to resonate today.
This screening was organized by Katerina Korola, Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Minnesota, with the support of the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch and the Center for German & European Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Admission: Free to all