Kameradschaft (1931)
Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Film Review

Kameradschaft (a.k.a. La Tragédie de la mine) represents the crowning achievement of Georg Wilhelm Pabst's flirtation with social realism.  The film combines the moody expressionism of Pabst's earlier silent films with some obvious Russian influences (most evidently the work of Sergei Eisenstein) to deliver an authentic recreation of a real-life mining disaster that took place in 1906, in the French town of Courrières, in which over 1000 men, women and children lost their lives.  The most surprising aspect of the Courrières mining disaster was that German miners from across the border came willingly to the aid of their French counterparts.  Pabst takes this rare and beautiful example of cross-nation solidarity and uses it to make a heart-felt plea for peace and cooperation between the peoples of different countries, at a time when Europe was fragmenting and slipping inexorably towards war.

Whilst the film has more than a whiff off Marxist-Leninist ideology about it (the Communist slogan 'Workers of the World Unite' is repeated ad nauseum towards the end of the film), it is evident that Pabst's primary intention is to promote peace, not Communism.  Cooperation between different countries was not a popular idea at the time the film was made, at the height of the Great Depression.  Unemployment and poverty were rife throughout Europe, and the lack of camaraderie that we see between the French and Germans at the start of the film is an accurate reflection of the socio-economic reality.  Franco-German antipathy was doubtless strengthened by memories of the Great War, which was still fresh in people's minds - something that is powerfully alluded to in the film's most striking sequence, in which a near-asphyxiated miner mistakes a gas-masked rescuer for a German soldier he once confronted on the battlefield of WWI.  Like many other free thinkers of his time, Pabst feared for the consequences of this inward-looking mindset, and he was right to do so.  What ensued was a spectacular burgeoning of nationalistic self-interest that created the perfect environment in which militant fascism could take root and flourish.  The nightmare that Pabst foresaw would become a horrible reality within just a few years of his film being made.

Whatever you may think about its political subtext, it cannot be denied that Kameradschaft is a remarkable piece of cinema.  Pabst was one of the most sophisticated filmmakers of his time and here he uses the moving image and synchronised sound to devastating effect to convey the true horror of a mining disaster and its terrible human consequences.  So convincing are the sets that Pabst had built for the film that they could easily be mistaken for the real thing - especially as they are so seamlessly intercut with shots of real locations.   The confined setting and Pabst's penchant for long tracking shots (which obviated the need for cutting) give the sequences in the mine a harrowingly claustrophobic feel, and when disasters strike (pit props suddenly collapsing, torrents of water smashing through walls, the air suddenly igniting into a ball of flame) the spectator feels the full impact, as if he were standing in the mine, only dimly await of the dangers around him.  Pabst's use of sound is also impressive for a film of this era.  There is no music (except in the one scene set in a dance hall), just natural sounds and the voices of the French and German protagonists, who speak in their own languages.  The sound track adds a great deal to the feeling of oppression in the mine, and you sense that every noise has a significance - some suggesting hope, the possibility of rescue; others portending yet another cruel disaster in which lives will be snuffed out like candles.

In addition to the dramatic scenes of courage and calamity, there are many others that offer some quieter moments that are charged with a powerful humanity.  These include the intensely poignant scene in which a grief-stricken old man finally manages to find and resuscitate his grandson, a boy miner.  Then there is the sequence in which a German miner, being driven off to the mine, appeals to his dumbstruck wife to understand why he must go and help his French comrades - his argument: the men he hopes to save have wives and children too.  Once the celebration and mutual back-slapping is over, the film ends with a surprisingly bitter coda, which perhaps reflects the reality that Pabst felt would ultimately tread his humanist hopes into the dust.  An iron grill separating the French and German portions of the mine is restored by military-looking officials, within hours of it being demolished by a group of German miners eager to come to the help of their French counterparts.  It is a highly symbolic moment, and one that is chilling in its prescience.

Pabst's vision of a Franco-German alliance would one day come to fruition, through various treaties signed in the 1950s and '60s which cemented economic and political cooperation between the two countries.  However, this enlightened outcome was a long way off.  In the meantime, France and Germany would once again have to resolve their differences by military means, in an insane conflagration that would engulf the entire world. Comradeship would have been a far less costly solution, but, as history demonstrates, hate is far easier to propagate than brotherly love.  With its heart-warming portrayal of one nation spontaneously coming to the aid of another, motivated simply by a common bond of humanity, Pabst's film offers hope for the future of mankind, but can we really be sure that it isn't just a case of wishful thinking?

Film Synopsis

During the Great Depression, France and Germany are both beset with high unemployment.  In a French border town, unemployed German miners are turned away when they try to find work in a French mine.  They receive a similarly cold welcome when they visit a French dancehall one Sunday evening.  The next day, Françoise makes up her mind to leave the mining town, unable to live with the possibility that her brother Jean and his friend Emile might die in a pit accident, like her father.  Just as her train is pulling out of the station, Françoise hears an enormous explosion from the mine.  It appears that attempts to contain a fire in the mine have failed and a gas explosion has resulted.  Fearing the worst, Françoise hurries to the mine entrance, along with all the other womenfolk of the town.  Their fears are confirmed: thousands of miners are trapped below ground, and many of these are likely to be dead already.  News of the disaster reaches the neighbouring German pit, and here the miners readily agree to form a rescue team to help their French comrades.  Meanwhile, a retired old miner sneaks into the mine unseen, determined to rescue his grandson, who is little more than a boy...