Cinema
Schacko Klak
Synopsis
In 1942, in a small occupied Luxembourg village, the war has not yet changed life very much. Through the eyes of Chrëscht Knapp, eleven years old, a carpenter's son, we get to know his family and the people of the village: most resist in one way or another, a few collaborate with the occupier. Then a villager is executed for having taken part in the general strike of October 1942; the Wehrmacht forcibly conscripts the young men, and the Gestapo searches the houses of those who evade it.
Context
In 1988 the project won a screenplay competition, endowed with fifteen million francs by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, from among twelve candidates. Conceived at first as a series of four episodes covering the years 1936 to 1944, it was reduced, for lack of co-producers, to a feature film centred on 1942, from a screenplay by Frank Feitler and Paul Kieffer. Based on the novel by Roger Manderscheid, it is regarded as the country's first film shot on 35 mm, and its title combines the military helmet and the opera hat. It was shown in Moscow, Montreal, Edinburgh, London and San Sebastián.
Who it is for
For those who want to see the German occupation told from a child's height, in a film that opened the way for Luxembourgish cinema.
Prizes and reception
Seen by eleven thousand spectators in Luxembourg, it received in 1992, at the Isfahan children's film festival, the prizes for best fiction film and best direction.