Heimat (episode 2 & 3)

Episode 1 was rather artsy -- with most of the filming in black and white but with color emerging for particularly strong memories or moments. One definitely had the feeling in episode 1 that these were memories and somewhat disconnected memories at that, although they were organized in time. In episode 2, the style was a bit more traditional and recognizeable.

We are now clearly seeing the story of the Simon family. Maria is raising her 2 sons and haunted by Paul's sudden and mysterious departure. There are long side stories of key family members. Paul's brother, Edward, who has a lung ailment, goes to Berlin for surgery, and while recovering, gets picked up by a prostitute who he eventually marries. It not entirely clear is he is ever fully aware of her occupation; he's a simple fellow. In Berlin, we see the rise of the Nazi party, but it is background. Edward returns home and joins the Nazi party, but he is not interested in politics. It's the thing to do; it's the way to move up in the world, and he doesn't seem to think beyond that. Grandma goes to visit her brother in a far off village. Her first night, her nephew, a Marxist, is picked up for re-education and driven away in a truck. The nephew was the only adult with a job in the family, so Grandma stays 3 months to help and returns to the Simon home with her grand niece in tow. She doesn't say what happened, just that she couldn't leave the child "in those conditions". Of all the family, Grandma is the one unnerved by the Nazi's and the soldier culture. She tells her grandson not to wear the Hitler Jugend uniform, tells him that he is no soldier, that they'll say he has a bad heart.

But the overall feel of episode 2 is upbeat. Life is getting better. The episode closes with a view of the street in front of the Simon house as workers are putting up electrical poles. Electricity is coming to the village. Life is getting better -- after the hard 1920s.

Episode 3 is a continuation of the same. Life is getting better. Actually episode 3 was a little boring as it focused on Eduard (and his wife), who is the brother-in-law of Maria.

Heimat episodes 4, 5 and 6

Heimat (episode 1)

Heimat is sort of the German equivalent of the 1980s series Roots. It is a 16-hour series following a family from 1919 to 1980 in a small village, Schabbach, near the French/German border. Episode 1 opens as Paul Simon, the eldest son of the Simon family, is returning home from WWI. He walks 6 days from France and we see him as he comes over the rise and sees home, "heimat". Heimat is a word that that encompasses all those warm feelings of home, tradition, and land associated with families that live in one place, esp. one village or farm, for generation upon generation -- i.e. not something that is so common in the U.S. anymore.

We watch Paul as he tries to reassimilate into village and family life. The sense of watching a dream or a memory is very strong in this series. Much of the filming is in black-and-white, but when the memory is particularly strong, color fades in. Paul falls in love, but with a woman who is a bit of an outsider in the village. Perhaps the attraction is that he too feels like an outsider even though he is an insider. She leaves; he stays. In the end he marries Maria, the daughter of the village mayor, and they have 2 sons. Then one day, he just leaves. He walks out the door and doesn't look back. Episode 1 is thus sets the background for the next 5 episodes, where we follow the now single-mother Maria as she raises her sons through tumultuous 30s and 40s, followed by decades of rapid societal change through the 50s,60s and 70s.

This was the first episode for me, and I won't be able to judge what I think until I'm farther in. Even so, I can say that this is not a series for everyone. It's a must see for modern European history buffs, those interested in or living in Germany, and WWII history buffs, but if you are not interested in any of those things, it's hard for me to imagine why you would watch this. Personally, I'm very interested in the roots of WWII and in the different societal and political forces that have shaped the European versus American world-view, so it's fascinating for me although the filming style seems a bit more artsy than necessary.

Heimat episodes 2 & 3