Proletarisches Kino

1920s
Political film work was not only a direct reaction to the traumatic experiences of the First World War, but also reflected the emancipatory self-image of the emerging labour movement. They wanted to confront bourgeois film production with a self-determined media power. The aim was to visualise the reality of the time, which was primarily understood to mean politically determined class relations. A rare example of the attempt to create a social realist cinema in Austria was NAMENLOSE HELDEN (A 1924). This only fragmentarily preserved feature film presents the recently overcome horrors of the World War as a message of political enlightenment. Prometheus, the Vienna-based production company responsible for this film, went to Germany, where it became a centre of left-wing film culture. In Austria, proletarian cinema remained an ephemeral affair in comparison. Without its own production structures and powerful studios, cinema was produced at eye level with reality. In the process, historically conscious, documentary images were created which, as living contemporary testimonies, were also intended to tell posterity about the struggle and achievements of the working class. (Ernst Kieninger)

With live musical accompaniment by Heidi Fial & Chris Janka