(1929, DCP, 133m) dir Phil Jutzi w/Alexandra Schmitt, Holmes Zimmermann, Ilse Trautschold. 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 modelled 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 is organized by Katerina Korola, Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Minnesota, with the support of the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch and the Center for German and European Studies at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Admission is free on a first-come basis, when the doors open at 6:30.