The Peasant's War ( Bauernkrieg )

The Peasant's War (DVD) (*)

~~$93.99~~ $81.95

Original Title: Bauernkrieg
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Switzerland ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
84 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1998 and produced in:
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Erich Langjahr

Written By:
Erich Langjahr

Actors:
Erich Langjahr

Synopsis:

The central questions are identity, survival and the future of farming. Each of these three aspects is explored in a separate film. BAUERNKRIEG looks into the question of the survival of agriculture, in a period of transition from a state-controlled, planned economy to a free market economy.This is a time in which world trade is being forcibly and dramatically liberalised. Most of today's farmers are putting their faith in advanced technology and selective breeding techniques as the way to survive in the new market situation. Unable to stay the course, many just give up.

This film is as noisy as SENNEN-BALLADE was peaceful. Or rather, BAUERNKRIEG appears all the more agitated and vindictive as SENNEN-BALLADE was contemplative and serene. This film, the second in the trilogy that Erich Langjahr is devoting to farming life, has a different setting than the first. From alpine pastures, he has now relocated to the plains. The film's opening and closing shots show farmers demonstrating with cowbells and whistles, speaking out, and carrying out their open air political activities. The farming community of the 90s is on the alert, and the filmmaker records its most pressing problems and most fundamental worries. The narrative highlights various situations and practices which are symptomatic of the evolution and consequent deterioration - this, precisely, is the central issue of the film - of the production methods of a farming community attached, in this case, to livestock farming. Langjahr explores situations ranging from auctions of farming goods which no longer provide their owners with sufficient income to the most efficient methods of reproducing species, from international trade in sperm to industrial slaughter. These situations are presented as archetypes necessary for the progression of his thoughts. Langjahr's film is not so much reportage illustrating an issue as it is a narrative that tells an edifying tale. The detailed account of the cows' artificial insemination, for instance, is based on clear and accessible scientific information. But beyond this we find a metaphysical dimension which in turn suggests a political reading of the practices and positions shown. The bulls are led by a machine which holds them by their nostrils. The route they are forced to take seems absurd, but the peasant's brief explanation makes it seem strikingly normal. One should not conclude that this is a superficial accusation ('those poor animals') - the filmmaker reveals, much as an archaeologist might, the profound logic underlying the industrial production of milk and meat. Up until the horribly long scene showing offal being crushed by a powerful machine, which makes sense when one realizes that this endless mass of bloody waste will be made into cattle food. The dizzying circle of recycling, in which animals eat themselves, is complete. A disturbing film, peasants' war is an insistent examination synthesizing a critical point of view without ignoring the complexity of psychological and economic realities. It is, in other words, a political, impertinent and invigorating film, shot in Switzerland and of general interest. In a sense, a citizen of a film.

After SENNEN-BALLADE (ALPINE BALLADE), BAUERNKRIEG (THE PEASANT'S WAR) is the second part of a trilogy on the subject of farming in which an attempt is made to look at the existence of farmers at the end of the 20th century.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 06 October, 2010.