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Jonathan

Retrospective 2025
Source: Kinowelt, © Beta Film
The film is set in an unspecified past, when a vampire count ruled a small, middle-class city and its surrounding farmland. Young people are especially vulnerable to the blood lust of the count and his followers. So a group of students, encouraged by their professor, plan a revolution. One of them, Jonathan, is chosen to lead the way and scout out the situation. But on his way to the castle, he runs into a series of obstacles. His coachman is assassinated and a vagabond working for the count tries to kill him. Upon reaching the castle, Jonathan witnesses bloody excesses. And he is forced to realise that his fiancée has fallen victim to the count …
In gory scenes, artfully arranged in long takes by cameraman Robby Müller, and in genre images familiar from the 19th century, Jonathan depicts a collective of freedom fighters in the battle against oppression. And like genre painting, Geissendörfer’s pictorially fascinating genre movie has a didactic moral background. Even at its premiere, Jonathan was recognised as a political parable of Germany’s ex-parliamentary protest movement of the 1960s.
by Hans W. Geißendörfer (Director, Screenplay)
with Jürgen Jung, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Paul Albert Krumm, Hertha von Walther, Oskar von Schab, Ilona Grübel, Sophie Strehlow, Gaby Herbst, Arthur Brauss Federal Republic of Germany 1970 German 97' Colour Rating R 16

With

  • Jürgen Jung
  • Hans-Dieter Jendreyko
  • Paul Albert Krumm
  • Hertha von Walther
  • Oskar von Schab
  • Ilona Grübel
  • Sophie Strehlow
  • Gaby Herbst
  • Arthur Brauss

Crew

Director Hans W. Geißendörfer
Screenplay Hans W. Geißendörfer
Cinematography Robert Müller
Editing Wolfgang Hedinger
Music Roland Kovač, Edvard Grieg
Production Design Hans Gailling
Producer Hellmut Haffner

Additional information

DCP: Filmmuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum