12 - Mama, ich lebe (1977)

Summary

AFTER VENTURING INTO the historical epic and the Gegenwartsfilm, Wolf returned to more familiar ground with Mama, ich lebe. The film tells the story of four young German soldiers who have been taken prisoner by the Soviets and agree to work with the Red Army against the Nazis. Only three of them are willing to use weapons, though, and their delay in helping a friend (Kolya) leads to the latter's death. One of them, Pankonin, works on listening to German radio together with a female Soviet officer (played by Tarkovsky's leading lady Margarite Terekhova) and falls in love with her. Once at the front, three of the four are selected for a commando behind enemy lines, from which none of the three return, leaving only one member of the group a survivor.

Mama, ich lebe has not received much more recognition from subsequent criticism than it did from its first viewers in 1977. Like its predecessor, Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz (1974), it is one of Wolf's most subdued, leisurely, and understated films, far less dramatic than its closest relative, Ich war neunzehn, of which it thus may superficially appear a pallid remake. The film's lack of popularity is probably linked to its having relied less on generic reference (to the Western) than had Ich war neunzehn. Yet Mama reworks not only many of the same thematic materials as other, films of Wolf’s—the moral pathos of political decision, of redefining individual authenticity apart from nationhood, and the constellation of private and collective memories—but also similar filmic techniques. Among them are the exploration of intermediality, of voiceover, audiovisual montage, and quoted photographs or stills found in Der geteilte Himmel, Ich war neunzehn, Goya, and Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. Like Genesung, Mama, ich lebe was based on a radio play. These techniques are used to help refurbish the GDR's foundational narrative of antifascism through heightening medial reflexivity and subjectivizing viewpoint, meant to suggest the authenticity of witness. Moreover, that narrative is itself a parabolic one—which is one of the chief reasons for the film's neglect until now.