All language subtitles for Tankred Dorst - Klara鈥檚 Mother [1978]

Even if there is only two of us,
Klara and I.

Sure one day there will be more of us.

Living in a community,
that's what I mean.

20, 100, with a lot of people.

Then you don't need laws or a state.

Grass eaters!

Do say grass eaters, we don't mind.

- Hey Anna!
- Good morning!

Liberation of the body and the spirit-

I will say that now
as often as I please.

Good morning Mrs. Falk.

Well then, children: knitting lessons!

I'll have to talk with Marie Grümmer,
because of her daughter Herta.

She has to be taken care of,

she's only being pushed around,
by everyone.

Working at home, all day,
and she's only 14.

Red hair and freckles
are the followers of the devil...

That man becomes free,
that's what matters.

That man finds a way out of his misery.

KLARA'S MOTHER

A Film by Tankred Dorst

I want to carry that.

- Don't fight, children!

Each one of you may carry my briefcase,
but one at a time!

Mongoloid idiots!

Marga is next.

Good evening, Madam.

- Bye bye, Ms. Falk.
- Bye, bye.

This is Herbert Kupka.

Good afternoon.

'afternoon.

He has got our address from our
like-minded friends from Switzerland

and stops off here.

This is Klara.

I told you I have a daughter.

I'm a teacher.

Herbert is a carpenter.

He is on his way to the Rhine area,
because of work.

Will he get work there?

He knows some of our people there.

How long do you want to stay?

For the time being you are here with us.

I'll wash this up myself,
I'm used to it.

If everyone does their own,
it won't bother anyone.

No, not everyone their own -
that would be individualism.

And don't put your cutlery back in
your bag, put it in the cutlery box.

You will stay a week for sure,
won't you?

I'm a restless person.

The house is big,
there would be space for many people.

It would be enough for 20.

For a rather big community.

We have hosted people before.

But most of the time
it's only the two of us.

We dry herbs,

and apples and pears.
In autumn also mushrooms.

People don't grasp our way of life.

They are so curious.

In this saloon there used to be dances

when the uncle was still alive.

This room is uninhabited,

it's the uncle's 'good room',

the “uncle's room“.

Klara just enters it to wind the clock.

And this is where we sleep.

On the floor, because it's healthier.

You know anyway.

Yes.

We are a good team, aren't we?

What are you after, down there?

I am looking for work.

You won't find any
down there in the gravel pit.

Why don't you come up into my office?

I can also come into your office.

Come on up!

You have no business down there!

I'll wait for you.

Are you one of the Falks' lot?

Are you also one of those grass eaters?

Or are you one of those
communists in the end?

I would like to have work myself,
we don't have work.

You can ask around everywhere.

In the factory, at Metz's,
they don't have work either.

You won't even get out-work.

You should have stayed
where you came from.

Where are you from in the first place?

Lumpi, come!

Are you building a new fence, Kupka?

The heavy industry finds an agreement
with Hitler in Düsseldorf.

Here it says.

- Read for yourself, Anna!
- Thank you, Gebhard.

That's how we are being
sold out to them.

I need some nails.

This one has to come off.

Damned bitch.

Surely you could build a sort of
simple wooden house, couldn't you?

What house are you talking about?

Well, like a hut.

Out on our parcel.

I see... good idea!

Like a simple house.

The way one should actually live.

Build your house according to
the needs of your body and your spirit.

Yes, that's what I mean.

Not a kind of spiritless box.

Only what's really necessary.

Only what man really needs.

We can take the boards
from the old barn over there.

And on top we put an eye.

You can take this one.

It belonged to our uncle.

Nicely warm.

I don't need a coat.

We already gave away most of the stuff.

I don't want any gifts.

You don't need to take it,
if you don't want.

Why in the world are you so distrustful?

One lemonade, please!

This is where I've been already...

...Osnabrück...

...and here is Poznań.

To whom do you belong?

To the young one or to the old one?

I'm an independent person.

I belong to no one.

Did they give you a mattress as well?

They sleep on the bare floor,
don't they?

Because it's healthy.

That's proven.

Why proven?

Where are you going with your boards?

Over there,
we are constructing something.

You are building a temple for
yourselves, as I heard.

You go to town every week, don't you?

I'd have an offer for you.

A business.

Oh really?

Some other day...

We'll see...

Zoning out again?

Again want to go to your Falks?

We haven't finished hundred pieces yet.

In everything she did and thought
she wanted to start from scratch.

Actually from the very first beginning
of all social life.

And she didn't want to tolerate a
mistake slipping into the life they led,

that eventually would
nullify all efforts.

Here we are at ease, here we are by
ourselves, nobody can tell us what to do.

Gebhard said, we have to watch out.

Herbert has to register,
otherwise they'll report him.

Four weeks!
That sure counts as a visit!

My documents are fine.

I'm learning so much from you.

I had to teach that all to myself.

And now I simply pass it on to you.

I passed it on to Klara and now to you.

It's nothing special.

Women are much smarter than men.

But certainly not the very young ones.

You don't need to flatter me,
you can stay anyway.

I learnt a lot from women,
you can believe me.

But you are the best woman.

Come on, you're lying!

It's a bourgeois prejudice, I know...

...but I am too old for you.

Don't shake your head, it's true.

Just look at me.

You are a young person.

Klara is your age.

It can only have a bad end for me,

I'm afraid of that.

It can only have a bad end
for the three of us...

...if me and you...

I didn't want to have anything
to do with men anymore.

I didn't even think of it...
when you arrived.

I had the idea of a community
for the three of us.

I had resolved to do everything right
from the beginning.

I didn't want to make a single mistake.

And I still don't want to.

Even if you will leave eventually...

But for the time you're here...

...we are a community.

We belong together.

We have the same ideas, don't we?

We three.

For Klara everything is harder.

She doesn't have a very firm character.

She's dependent on me.

I have to take care of Klara.

Herta is already here.

Herta, there you sit already!

Knitting lessons only start at 3 pm.

She should simply come in.

Herta!

Come sit down over there.

You can wind up wool in the meantime.

Herta has the same fate as me,

always just being pushed around,

and people say she's
a good-for-nothing'.

Her mother passed away,
and her aunt just raised her for work.

For work, since she was little.

...I know, I talk too much.

Have you been sitting here for long?

Half an hour.

Actually I wanted to look for you,
but then it was so nice on the bench.

I laid my hands in the sun.

Klara is always cold.

I have a jacket with me,
I'll cover myself later.

You allow too little air and sun
to touch your body.

Mrs. Falk couldn't imagine happiness as
something having to do solely with herself.

Happiness had to refer to the state of
society or at least the living conditions

of a rather big number of people,

which she was ideologically
connected with.

And happiness also
meant 'future' for her.

Now she was suddenly confused,

when she realized
that her relationship with Kupka

was not at all compatible
with that idea of happiness.

Her behaviour towards Klara
was the same as before.

But she noticed,
that she was dissimulating.

And she knew well, that this dissimulation
could eventually destroy her idea of life.

That Kupka was basically the enemy,
who she clung to,

who she was tied to,
maybe to her peril.

You don't smoke!

What do you have cigarettes for,
if you don't smoke?

Well...

I also have a lighter. From a gun shell.

But you haven't been to war, have you?

No...later.

In Poland, or where you're from?

And how are things
with Mrs. Falk and you?

What are you reading?

- It's an ad.
- Ah?

Someone wants to sell their bicycle.

For emigration reasons,
household effects for sale:

Furniture, linen, a men's bike.

Do you have money at all?

25 marks, I'd have this much.

This newspaper is
at least two months old.

It looks like you're bleeding.

I hit you!

Why in the world did I hit you?

I have never hit you before.

Why in the world did I do this?

But why are you doing
silly things like that?

You with your red stain!

Such silly things!

What stupid creatures we are!

Poor, stupid creatures.

Why don't you send him away?

Tell me, what was your former life like?

No one's ever asked me that.

Except for the police.

My parents died, when I was a kid.

Then I came here to live with my uncle.

The local dance balls used to
take place in this house.

In the saloon above.

The uncle had rented it out.

I was as thin as rake.

People would always say: 'How can
ever become anything of her?'

The uncle had like a big speckled dog.

And he never said a word.

When I left for a job
to the Lake Constance,

it was actually the first time
someone talked to me.

Everyone needs someone
to teach them the first steps.

Later you can continue
on your own accord.

The villagers here
were never told anything by anyone.

That's why they are the way the are.

You can only talk to the kids.

And I do talk to them.

You have very nice hair.

You should have got to
know me earlier...

...when I was 25.

But I was only 5 then.

Scumbags!

This countryside quiet!

Soon I'm over and done with it.

Will you be relocated again?

To a special school.

Really?

The school administration discovered me.

I'm a splendid educator...

...for idiots.

You mustn't say that.

It takes an enormous patience.

I don't think you have that much.

Sure I have.

You can't stop mocking other people.

But I think you don't actually mean it.

It sounds like
you feel sorry about my leaving?

True, I just wanted to find out
if someone would shed a tear over me.

Are you back in school?

Are you doing your homework?

I have this notebook always with me.

What are you writing in it?

A love novel?

Don't you have enough books,
Mrs. Falk and Klara?

Here I always take down
the most important.

When I read a book,
I always try to get to the core.

And that is what I write down.

I don't have time to read books.

I know all of that by heart.

Does it also say something
about your communism?

And about free love?

Yes, it's all interconnected.

Let me ask you one thing.

A special question for you:

If I also spent all my time reading,

who would butcher the pigs?

First of all it has to be examined,
what man needs at all.

What kind of necessities man has.

And if the work someone does
is necessary in the first place.

And according to that,
work has to be classified.

Well, you don't need pigs,
you grass eaters.

But the others do!

Imagine, I saw old woman Falk,
she was all naked, lying on the mattress.

And the guy combed her hair.

The kids don't have respect
for you, Klara.

Go on, say it!

Well, then I tell you.

The Polack and your mother...

What did you say?

...naked out in the hut?

He's seeking the devil's hair?

It's a disgrace, Klara.

That people gossip about you like that.

And about your mother
and about the two of you!

Mr. Kupka is visiting my mother.

Ah really?

So you are moving over to your room?

I've been to university for 114 days.

For 114 days I've been staying with you.

Well Kupka, have you
become a hairdresser?

You are a hairdresser, aren't you?

Do you want to cut my hair, too?

You with your three bristles!

Lo and behold!

What a noble look you have today!

And Klara is hardly recognizable!

In former times there were no traps,
now there are some!

We don't eat meat.

I just wanted to say,
what was before, and what is now!

The one who set up the traps,

I'm gonna catch him.

Come!

Put this away!

I don't want this!

And the thing with Frieder,
the butcher, I don't want that!

You want to lock me up.

Good morning, Mrs. Falk.

Don't you want to start?

Do you want to learn
knitting gloves today?

Have you all finished the thumb gusset?

Let me see.

Pull it over your hand.

But here's something missing, Rosa.

You will have to knit two more rounds.

Don't knit too loose.

And yours is too tight.

Yes, like this it's correct.

Well, and now we would
need the safety pin.

Do you all have one with you?

Yes.

Give me your knitting stuff, Anni.
I'll show you, how we go on.

Marga, look at me and pay attention,
or you won't learn anything.

If you can't knit yourself gloves,
your hands will freeze off.

But if you have wool and if you can knit,
you don't need to spend money.

Now you take off the glove again.

And then you knit the first five purls
off the needle with the thumb gusset.

One, two, three, four and five.

And now you take the safety pin
and put the next 14 purls on it.

And then you can just leave them be.

Where is Herta Grümmer today?

You know it yourself.

Yes, I know it myself.

I would like to know,
where she learnt it.

A miscarriage with thirteen years!

That's fornication!

And where would you
learn stuff like that?

She used to be your special fosterling.

Now I will sit down here and listen
what you have to say in your lesson.

I heard all sorts of things.

Ah, like what?

I tell you one thing, if the kids are
being corrupted here, then you are fired.

I will take care of that.

And all the filth!

And your communism on top!

I tell you one thing.

We won't tolerate you
corrupting our decent kids.

We have handicraft lesson,
let's continue now.

And you will also get rid of the guy!

We could emigrate, to America!

I'm too old.

I thought there was something.

You wanted to run away from me.

What are you staring
at me like that for?

I got some again,
even if she doesn't like it.

She can go and rat me.

You'd prefer me to go, right?

I'm mostly in school anyway.

Herbert!

Herbert!

Well, well, that Herta...
I'm not to blame.

I always told her.

But it doesn't get into her head.

What am I supposed to do with this girl?

She was always at home.

Just take care of Herta a little,
in the future.

She's underage, it's you,
who incurs a penalty.

She was only lucky to have miscarried.

Just let her be.

Such a disgrace!

I will incur a penalty because of you,

because of you dirty bastard!

Dear Klara, today at 7 back at the
ponds. Herbert K. Important!

Klara had never thought if her mother
was a beautiful or an ugly woman,

and if she would be attractive to a man.

But now with the note in her pocket,
which could only be from Kupka,

she looked at her mother in a
depreciatory way, like she was rival.

Herbert went to town, didn't he?

He said he would come
with the train at 7 or at 9.

What's up?

She knew his handwriting,
as she had often seen his notebook.

Now she was completely baffled,
that she hadn't had the idea at all,

that someone was just
going to trick her.

As she couldn't find out
who had wound her up

she became suspicious
of all the people around her.

You can take a bath now, Herbert.

Open up.

Why don't you open up?

Everyone hates me, because of you!

I have to have a word with Klara.

What's the matter with her?

She's becoming more and more hysterical.

I have to talk to Klara.

I must tell her everything,
once and for all.

Everything that happened between us.

Please come in, Klara.

Sit down here, will you!

I didn't close the door.

Here, that's your father.

This photograph was taken in Basel.

You said, my father had died.

Well, no, I will tell you everything,

and also the thing with Kupka.

Give me the picture back.

I didn't want to marry him,
you already know that.

I didn't want to have the man,
I wanted to have the baby.

You, so to speak.

Well, what am I going to make
a lot of words for?

I simply would not have fit
in a kind of bourgeois family.

Like with a swallow on top of your hat.

Like with half a swallow or with
an entire one, with the beak downwards.

You know my ideas, you know them anyway.

Back then I thought...

...I did have a profession...

...and if I had a child...

I would raise it on my own.

One day it would...

With my daughter,
I want to do everything right.

I want her to be a free person.

Get a bucketful of briquettes.

Shall I put on a briquette?

Don't bother.

You are never going to sell me out,
are you?

I would simply say,
you did that to Herta.

And Herta wouldn't say a word anyway,
she's much too afraid to report me.

And you, you belong nowhere,

and you can leave anywhere,
you would want to go,

America, or where ever you want to go.

But I, no idea where to...

Nobody would believe you anyway!

Two votes for the
German National People's Party!

Come on, bear a hand!

You, too!

Where did you leave your spitz today,
Mr. Kösswaldt?

I left it at home,
it always yaps so much.

I think it's a red.

Be careful, will you?

You don't need to be afraid, mother!

Watch out!

What's the matter with you
and the election?

Kupka is not entitled to vote,
but you and Klara are.

Yes.

You don't have liquor, do you?

No.

You have no time for our party, I know.

But you'll see!

We vote for the Communists, because
we are against personal property.

But we don't have anything to do
with your enforced system.

You with your state,
with your bureaucratic controls.

Our aims are different.

Vote for Hitler, list 1.

I know, don't argue with me like that.

Your lettuce, you grow your lettuce
in your little paradise garden,

until the Nazis got you in their pocket.

You don't need to leave!

So you'll vote for the Communist Party?

I keep seeing Kupka with Frieder,
the butcher, I don't like that at all!

That's his business.

Frieder is sneaking around
every house and sniffing.

If I tried to find all the
spies around here

or all the people
who wanted to pin something on us...

We live according to our principles.

Whether the others understand us or not.

We don't do harm to anyone,
on the contrary.

I taught reading and writing to Herta,
because nobody cared about her.

The spies can even
learn something from us.

And even if there is only three of us,
here in the village.

Me, Klara and Herbert: three!

Sure someday there will be more of us.

I don't trust Frieder,
the butcher, politically.

In the end it was him,
who did that to Herta.

Do you know something?

You'd better watch out, Kupka.

We communists,
we can't just do what we like.

We have to think tactically.

We not.

You sure are a little stubborn,
Anna, aren't you?

Can you give us two?

You want one too, don't you?

You think I would miss out
on fried sausages?

How is the business going?

How many have you sold yet?

Some 50 maybe, Mr. Metz.

Come on pay a round!

It's about time, that better times
come around, Mr. Metz.

It's going to be alright!

Germans, today your destiny
will be decided.

Freedom and prestige
for the German nation.

Vote for Hitler on list 1.

Did you manage to put your cross?

Next time we probably
won't have to vote anymore.

Hitler is going to abolish the parties.

Then we won't need elections anymore.

It's nonsense anyway,
that everyone is entitled to vote.

What do ordinary people
know about politics?

The Marshall and the Privat fight
with us for freedom and equal rights.

Vote for the National Socialists,
vote for Hitler, list 1.

I will close the slot just after.

Only two Communist votes in the village!

Why?

There used to be three.

Tell me, who did you vote for, Klara.

I can't do that any longer.

What is it that you can't do any longer?

I submitted an invalid vote.

Ah?

And next time I am going to vote
like the others.

The others!

Why would we care about the others!

Who are the others in the first place?

The others...

They broke Gebhard's windows!

Ms. Falk! Ms. Falk!

Ms. Falk! Ms. Falk!

Kupka, care of Falk?

An official letter.

You are asked to register.

I won't register with no one.

It surely is because of
the residence permit.

The Nazis want to detain you.

But it doesn't say here.

They want to detain you.

But what for? I didn't commit any crime.

Now it's the Nazis' turn,
and people like us are unwanted.

But you don't need to leave!

He sure has to leave.

Maybe he did commit a crime.

He didn't commit any crime.

I simply don't know.

Your Herbert is gone!

Your Herbert is gone!

Mother!

It's not my fault, is it?

Now it's coming out!

They all have arsenals.

They have hidden arms, the communists.

All of them have hidden arms.

We're gonna see what they find,
when they enter your hut.

Your Kupka!

Mother!

Klara!

Tell people, I went to Bayreuth
to see the Poehlmanns, nothing more.

Later you'll get a letter from me.

You are too timid.

They can't do you any harm.

Mother.

Old Mrs. Falk is lying in the water!

Old Mrs. Falk is lying in the water!

Old Mrs. Falk is lying in the water!

Now she has swum
through the whole village,

and has appeared everywhere
one last time.

There are two mattresses.

Yes.

Well, Kupka...

How did this Kupka come here
in the first place?

Well, think for a moment, Klara.

Come on, you have to think a little bit.

He was jobless.

There we go.

He was Polish, Klara, wasn't he?

Where did the 600 marks go?

She took the money
from the savings account, Klara.

She always wanted to have
the roof repaired.

But in that case the money
would have to be here.

I see.

You deem it possible, that she met up
with Kupka another time, in this hut?

I don't believe that.

But this is where we found her suitcase.

Yes, she took a suitcase with her,
I saw that.

There we go.

What a odour!

Healthy!

It surely was an accident.

My mother must have tripped.

It surely was an accident.

Who of you knows
how the sower sows rye?

Does he sow like this?

You, Gerhard, your father is a farmer!

Or does he sow like this?

Yes Bärbel, you know it?

Yes that's right!

And now we speak our poem along with it.

Measure the step,
measure the momentum, the ground...

Movement of the sower
and the poem nicely together!

Now once more!

Measure the step,
measure the momentum...

the ground will stay
young for a long time.

There is a grain that dies and rests,

the rest is sweet, it's doing fine.

Here's one that breaks from the clod,

it's doing fine, sweet is the light.

And none of them
falls out of this world,

every grain falls as god pleases.

And now the whole thing from the start.

Subtitles: Stefan Fichtner
© Filmgalerie 451