Kameradschaft
When a coal mine collapses on the frontier between Germany and France and traps a team of French miners, workers on both sides of the border spring into action, putting aside national prejudices and wartime grudges to launch a dangerous rescue operation. Director G. W. Pabst brings a vivid sense of claustrophobia to this ticking-clock scenario, using realistic sets and sound design to create the maze of soot-choked shafts where the miners struggle for survival. Inspired by a real-life mine collapse, Kameradschaft (Comradeship) is an arresting disaster film and a stirring plea for international cooperation, and it cemented Pabst’s status as one of the most morally engaged and formally dexterous filmmakers of his time.
Special Features
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with film scholar Hermann Barth on the film’s production
- Interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser, featuring footage from the French version of the film
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak on the historical context of the film
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Lucy Sante and the 1930 text by Karl Otten that the film was based on
New cover by Anthony Gerace
Special Features
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with film scholar Hermann Barth on the film’s production
- Interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser, featuring footage from the French version of the film
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak on the historical context of the film
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Lucy Sante and the 1930 text by Karl Otten that the film was based on
New cover by Anthony Gerace
Cast
- Alexander Granach
- Kasper
- Fritz Kampers
- Wilderer
- Daniel Mendaille
- Jean Leclerc
- Ernst Busch
- Wittkopp
- Elisabeth Wendt
- Anna Wittkopp
- Gustav Püttjer
- Kaplan
- Oskar Höcker
- Mine foreman
- Héléna Manson
- Rose, Albert’s wife
- Andrée Ducret
- Françoise Leclerc
- Alex Bernard
- Grandfather Jacques
- Pierre-Louis
- Georges, his grandson
- Georges Charlia
- Emile
- Georges Tourreil
- Engineer Vidal
- Marcel Lesieur
- Albert
- Fritz Wendhausen
- German mine director
Credits
- Director
- G. W. Pabst
- Screenplay by
- Ladislaus Vajda
- Screenplay by
- Peter Martin Lampel
- Screenplay by
- Herbert Rappaport
- Screenplay
- Karl Otten
- Screenplay
- Anna Gmeyner
- French dialogue
- Léon Werth
- From the story by
- Karl Otten
- Director of photography
- Fritz Arno Wagner
- Music by
- G. von Rigelius
- Edited by
- Jean Oser
- Set design
- Ernö Metzner
- Sound
- Adolf Jansen
- Assistant directors
- Herbert Rappaport
- Assistant directors
- Robert Beaudoin
- Produced by
- Seymour Nebenzal
A scene from Kameradschaft
