HEIMAT - EINE DEUTSCHE CHRONIK (disc 1) (1985)

Cast

Plot

The series (11 episodes) tells the story of the village of Schabbach in the impoverished Hunsrueck hill country in Germany through the years 1919-1982. The central character is Maria, at the beginning a teenage girl, by the end an elderly matriarch, and her family who, like the rest of the German people, lived through the crises of 1920s, Nazism and eventual rebirth following WWII. Heimat is a superb cinematic chronicle of social and political change, beautifully shot and breathtaking in its depth and scope. The honesty of the depiction and the use of Schabbach as a microcosm of the German psyche in such a tumultuous century makes this epic tale a timeless masterpiece. This episode starts with Paul's reappearance after WW1 until his mysterious disappearance.