Konrad Wolf: Mama, I'm Alive

During World War II, four German prisoners of war on the Eastern Front join the Russians to help end the conflict and return home. Reworking themes from I Was 19, their story unfolds as a slow journey of inner conflict and human connection, set against the backdrop of the country’s vast and varied landscapes.

An old photograph of four soldiers in Red Army uniforms, posing against the back of a railway carriage forms  the backdrop to the films opening credots. But these men are not Russians — they are German prisoners of war who have chosen to collaborate with the Soviets in hopes of ending the war and returning home. They are Pankonin, a carpenter who has so far avoided firing a weapon; Kuschke, a theology student; Becker, a pilot, who joined the army from secondary school; and Kowalewski, who fancies himself an acrobat. Under the guidance of Major Mauris, a Baltic Red Army officer and Germanist, they travel across the country by train and car to prepare for their mission. Along the way, as they interact with the Russians who supervise, train, and work with them, they encounter mistrust, camaraderie, and even love. All the while, they wrestle with questions of loyalty and identity: Are they traitors, or are they saving lives on both sides? And when the time comes, will they be able to fire on fellow Germans?

For Mama, I’m Alive, Konrad Wolf and screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase—collaborating for the third time — returned to Kohlhaase’s radio play Fragen an ein Foto (“Questions to a Photograph”), first broadcast in 1969, a year in which the cultural policy of German Democratic Broadcasting was meant to emphasise the shared struggle of Russian and German workers, the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) being one example of this. Founded during World War II and consisting of German POWs and exiled Communist Party members, the anti-fascist organisation had the mission to spread propaganda, gather intelligence, and sabotage German forces on Soviet soil. In the film it is referenced through two figures with more senior positions in the organisation: one chastises German soldiers for laughing during a Russian film screening intended for their re-education, urging them instead to reflect on the atrocities the Germans committed against the Soviet people; the other, a Communist party member, joins his Soviet counterpart in wishing the protagonists luck in their dangerous assignment.

The narrative of Mama, I’m Alive unfolds earlier than that of Wolf’s I Was 19, yet the central theme is the same: the protagonists’ conflict between their identity as Germans and the anti-fascist — that is anti-German — cause that they share with the Russians, told in both films through complex and diverse relationships between members of both groups. In Mama, I’m Alive, the episodic structure is even more pronounced, its rhythm slow, allowing space for conversations that probe inner conflicts and mutual perceptions. Visually, dimly lit train compartments and rustic huts contrast with sweeping landscapes — trains slicing through vast territories, forests rushing past or enclosing the characters, the trees pervaded by sunlight. At times, these landscapes appear peaceful, almost pastoral; moments later, they transform into combat zones, sites of sudden violence and meaningless death.

GDR, 1977, 103 min, color, German with English subtitles
Directed by Konrad Wolf, script: Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase, dramaturgy: Wolfgang Beck, Günter Klein, Klaus Wischnewski, Dieter Wolf, editor: Evelyn Carow, camera: Werner Bergmann, set design: Alfred Hirschmeier, costume design: Werner Bergemann, music (score): Rainer Böhm, narrator: Klaus Piontek.
With Eugen Albert, Donatas Banionis, Detlef Gieß, Jewgeni Kindinow, Eberhard Kirchberg, Iwan Lapikow, Peter Prager, Margarita Terechowa, Michail Wasskow, Uwe Zerbe.