Films by Brigitte Krause

Germany 2013, 78 min
by Brigitte Krause

The story of an extraordinary prisoner of war campwhere German soldiers passed on culture and crafts to their Japanese captors,which have since become part of Japan's own distinctive ways of life. Hans-Joachim Schmidt from Kutzhof, Germany, finds in the attic of his new house photos and letters of German prisoners-of-war (PoW)in Japan during World War I. He starts a historical and biographical researchproject. At the age of 24, Kazue Shinoda learns that she has a German grandfather, who was one of those PoWs in Japan. Her search leads to anunusual family reunion nearly 100 years after the Japanese set up the PoWcamps. Renate Bergner, daughter of a former prisoner of war,keeps the scripts and photos of her father for the future generations. The Japanese took almost 5,000 German prisoners whenthey conquered Tsingtao, then a German colony in China. In the PoW camps in Japan, such as Bando, Germanculture seeps into the local communities through crafts, exhibitions, lecturesand numerous theatre and concert performances. The first Japanese performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 took place here. Bando was a starting point in Japan for a lot of German heritage that is now embedded in Japanese culture, for example the baking of German bread. Mr. Oka still bakes German bread four generations later. Bando became a strong symbol for Japanese German friendship and all this was enabled by the PoW Commandant Matsue treating his German prisoners with respect.

Germany 2010, 80 min
by Brigitte Krause

Tales of departures and partings intersect at Steubenhöft quay - the forgotten port of European emigration. The quay is almost not of this earth, a final terminus and a starting point for the transit voyages to the United States and Canada. The film-maker traverses this place of countless farewells in images full of longing. Situated on the German North Sea coast, it is the only still-operating, former emigration harbor in the world. Tales told by the people there, travelers after the turn of the century, and emigrants during the war awaken the place to new life. Production: maxim film Peter Roloff Chausseestr. 17 10115 Berlin, Germany tel.: +49 (30) 30-872478 fax: +49 (30) 30-872479 berlin@maxim-film.de www.maxim-film.de