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Peppermint Frieden

Peppermint Peace
Retrospective 2019
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek
The story of a post-war childhood in rural Bavaria. Marianne is five in 1945, when she and her ethnic German parents arrive in Straubing as displaced persons from Terezín in then Czechoslovakia. Her father, a former soldier in the German army, returns to his pre-war occupation as a teacher. Under permanent rebuke from the village priest, Marianne and her friends are curious about religion and sex. They are especially fascinated by an American GI. Part of the occupation forces, he starts up an affair with a pretty neighbour, while generously distributing chewing gum to the town’s children. So for them, peace (Frieden) tastes of peppermint. But the preacher’s constant sermons about the evil of the Soviet “Ivans” awaken in Marianne memories of the trauma of war, which intensify when “Mr Peace” receives orders to go to Korea … In neo-realistic scenes and colourful dream sequences, the film uses idiosyncratic camerawork to look at Cold War taboos from a child’s point of view. Made in 1983, during the era of rearmament debates, Marianne Rosenbaum’s alternative take on history in this Heimatfilm, with its Bavarian and American star cast, can be considered a political statement.
by Marianne S. W. Rosenbaum
with Peter Fonda, Saskia Tyroller, Gesine Strempel, Hans-Peter Korff, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Cleo Kretschmer, Sigi Zimmerschied, Konstantin Wecker, Hans Brenner Federal Republic of Germany 1983 German 108’ Black/White & Colour Rating R12

With

  • Peter Fonda
  • Saskia Tyroller
  • Gesine Strempel
  • Hans-Peter Korff
  • Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel
  • Cleo Kretschmer
  • Sigi Zimmerschied
  • Konstantin Wecker
  • Hans Brenner

Crew

Written and Directed by Marianne S. W. Rosenbaum
Cinematography Alfred Tichawsky
Editing Gérard Samaan
Music Konstantin Wecker
Sound Yves Osmu
Art Director Franz Tyroller, Eva Möschler, Sw. Deva Mani, Roland Sviboda, Inge Schumacher
Costumes Ute Hofinger, Renate Schmaderer
Producers Gérard Samaan, Monika Aubele

Additional information

Film print: Filmmuseum München

Marianne S. W. Rosenbaum

Filmography

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019