So weit die Füße tragen (2001)

Director:

Hardy Martins

Writers:

Josef Martin Bauer (novel)
Bastian Clevé (writer)

Release Date:

27 December 2001 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

As prisoner of war Clemens Forell, a German soldier during WW II, is sentenced to a labour camp in far east Siberia...

Plot Keywords:

Siberia | Border | Prison | Pow | War Criminal

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Bernhard Bettermann	...	Clemens Forell
Michael Mendl	...	Dr. Stauffer
Anatoliy Kotenyov	...	Kamenev (as Anatoly Kotenyov)
Irina Pantaeva	...	Irina
Iris Böhm	...	Kathrin
Anna Hermann	...	Lieschen
Adalbert Mayer	...	Pfarrer (as Pfarrer Dr. Adalbert Mayer)
Hans Peter Hallwachs	...	Onkel Baudrexel
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Egor Abrossimov
Hans-Uwe Bauer	...	Leibrecht (as Hans Uwe Bauer)
Simon Beckord	...	Frieder
Igor Filchenkov	...	Anastas
Heinrich Giskes
André Hennicke	...	Bauknecht
Johannes Hitzblech	...	Danhorn
Nikolai Kondrashkin	...	Schamane
Vladimir Korpus	...	Semjon (as Wladimir Korpus)
Pavel Lebeshev	...	Chief prison camp
Irina Narbekova	...	Dr. Pachmutova
Anna Sonntag
Antonio Wannek	...	Mattern
Stephan Wolf-Schönburg	...	Klugmann
Aleksandr Yefremov	...	Igor

Also Known As:

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (International: English title)

Runtime:

158 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Germany

Company:

B & C Filmproduktion GmbH

Trivia:

Bernhard Bettermann's grandfathers both were sent to Soviet POW camps at the end of World War Two.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: While walking at night across a plain field of snow, with just the moon as only source of light, Forell throws three different shadows.

Movie Connections:

Remake of "So weit die Füße tragen" (1959)

Getting to grips with individual human rights

I thought this movie is very well because it depicts a person as what he/she is, a human. It does not delve into politics, ethnic or racial backgrounds and simply shows how a person's life was destroyed by the worldview that devides us in races and ethnicities. Forell was a good man who became victim of his ethnicity and the evil that other "members" of his ethnicity had caused. To me, the movie shows that violence always is aimed at the weaker, and mostly at the innocent. There simply is no justification for violence against innocent individuals no matter what background they are from. Interestingly, I think this movie is a great contribution to something we still need to come to grips with in our current times. Is it just to persecute the entire Hutu race, because Tutsis were slaughtered by the political representation and the army of the Hutus? Can an entire race, ethnicity or religion be held responsible for crimes committed by other individuals of the same background? I strongly doubt it. I think if we as the human kind would come to terms with judging a person as an individual and not as a whole ethnicity we would take a BIG step forward for our humanity. But will we ever learn? I strongly hope.