Antigone
Shortfilm
Germany 1964
35 mm
7 min
B/W

Crew

Buch und Regie
Ula Stöckl
Kamera
Lothar Spree
Ton
Oimel May
Produktion
Institut für Filmgestaltung Ulm

Cast

Antigone
Heide Sparmann
Theiresias
Surja Balodis
Kreon
Robert Roeschke
Haimon
Rainer von Dietz

Festival Participation

10. Westdeutsche Kurzfilmtage,
Oberhausen 1964

Contents

The classical Epic is reduced to the bare bones of the action. Despite the seven minutes of turbulent action, it is actually a slow film: in the war against Kreon, one of Antigone's brothers fights for the king, one against him. Both die. One of them is buried; the other is left lying on the street. Antigone goes against the king's wishes and wants to bury her brother. As a punishment Antigone is buried alive behind a wall. Her fiancé, Haimon dies, overcome with grief. Haiman's mother, Eurydike, is so upset by his death that she hangs herself. And just as the old soothsayer predicted, the king himself finds no happiness from all this death: he is killed. That makes 6 deaths, even though the war is over.

The Film

01: Ula Stöckl already establishes tendencies in Antigone, her first film, which feature later in all her subsequent films. She uses her own experiences as a basis for themes, without actually being autobiographical or putting herself in the centre. She directs the films with a sharp eye for reality, without actually portraying reality itself. It is exactly in this way that she uncovers the structures of real life and manages to push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking.
Daniela Sannwald, Anschauung und Begriff S. 41, 1995
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Ula Stöckl 1964: My first real film was Antigone. Why Antigone? Why Antigone in this way? Antigone, the person, experiences a fate, which represents an archetype for human behavior: She communicates between God and man. And God demands that humans respect the dead. The body of a man who has been killed in war should not be left on the street open to disgrace or ridicule, which is what the king did. Because I don't know how people spoke in those days the language is not synchronized in time to the lips. It is merely to indicate that they spoke in those days to. Why this form? Why seven and-a-half minutes? Because I imagined reading Antigone's story as a sort of evening newspaper report. Both of these things, the form of the report and the story have relevance for our reality.