Cinema
The Last Bridge
Die letzte Brücke
Helmut Käutner · 1954
Synopsis
Occupied Yugoslavia, during the war. Helga Reinbeck, a German paediatrician called up to a military hospital, loves a non-commissioned officer, Martin. Lured out of the camp, she is abducted by partisans whose only doctor has been lost. She treats them at first under compulsion, then because she sees them as wounded men; the arrival of a German prisoner forces her to ask herself which side she is on.
Context
An Austro-Yugoslav co-production shot in Mostar and the Neretva valley; the town's old bridge, destroyed in 1993, is one of the filming locations. Entire passages are spoken in Serbo-Croatian, and the director himself tells the story in voice-over. Tilla Durieux, who had lived in hiding in Yugoslavia during the war as the wife of a Berlin Jew, plays a role. The film was released on 11 February 1954 in Vienna and Berlin, and was Bernhard Wicki's first major role.
Who it is for
One hundred minutes, and a subject that does not resolve: the film takes no one's side. Part of the dialogue is in Serbo-Croatian.
Prizes and reception
International Jury Prize at Cannes in 1954, with a mention for Maria Schell, then the David O. Selznick Prize at Berlin.
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