G. W. Pabst

Kameradschaft

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.

Film Info

  • Germany
  • 1931
  • 88 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.19:1
  • German, French
  • Spine #908

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

Purchase Options

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
Kameradschaft
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

Current

Pabst’s Vivid Re-creation of a Real-Life Disaster
Pabst’s Vivid Re-creation of a Real-Life Disaster

In this excerpt from a supplement on our release of G. W. Pabst’s Kameradschaft, scholar Hermann Barth explores the painstaking work of set designer Ernő Metzner.

Kameradschaft: War Is Over (If You Want It)
Kameradschaft: War Is Over (If You Want It)

G. W. Pabst’s breathlessly paced reimagining of a mine disaster makes an urgent plea for international cooperation in the post–World War I era.

By Lucy Sante