Heimatfilm#
Heimatfilm (= "homeland film"), typically Austrian and German film genre, particularly popular in the 1950s and 1960s, usually presenting the concept of "Heimat" through a trivial plot embedded in a setting characterised by a love of nature and rural traditions and ostensibly apolitical in character. Set against almost theatrical natural scenery (woods, mountains, village) the themes ranged from life in the mountains, skiing and hunting stories to rustic film adaptations of literary works (L. Ganghofer, L. Anzengruber) to farces with rural topics. Almost all renowned Austrian actors and actresses at one time appeared in such films, some of them played almost exclusively in them (e.g. M. Andergast, W. Haas, A. Hoven, R. Lenz, R. Prack).
Films: Glaube an mich, 1946; Der Hofrat Geiger, 1947; Echo der Berge
(Der Foerster vom Silberwald), 1954; Das Maedchen vom Pfarrhof, 1955;
Die Sennerin von St. Kathrein, 1955; Saison in Salzburg, 1961;
Ruf der Waelder, 1965.
Literature#
G. Steiner, Die Heimat-Macher. Kino in Oesterreich 1946-66, 1987; S. Schachinger, Der oesterreichische Heimatfilm als Konstruktionsprinzip nationaler Identitaet in Oesterreich nach 1945, 1993.