Returning from war in 1520s Switzerland, mercenary Hansli Gyr finds his homeland divided by the Reformation. As he embraces the teachings of Zwingli, his beloved Ursula is drawn into the radical Anabaptist movement. Their romance is tested by religious conflict, political unrest, and the bloody upheavals that transform their world.
“Transgressive” is not a word one often uses to describe films from the GDR. With an industry so closely monitored, it was rare for a genuinely shocking film to get past the authorities, but Ursula is just such a film. To make it even more shocking, it was made for television.
But when the film was finished, the Swiss (who co-produced it) refused to show it. It played once on East German TV and then was relegated to DEFA’s “Giftschrank”. Nor could this film have made it onto U.S. television either. It contains male and female full-frontal nudity, defecation and urination, extreme blasphemy, and some of the bluest language in any German film. No one could push the limits of acceptability this far and not pay a price.
The film marked the end of Egon Günther’s career as a filmmaker in the GDR. Thereafter, Günther went west, where he continued to work as a screenwriter and director until 2002. Because of its subsequent ban, the film achieved legendary status in East Germany. Not every film that has received this accolade deserves it, but Ursula most certainly does. After all these years, it still manages to shock.
Director: Egon Günther.
Writers: Gottfried Keller (novella), Helga Schütz.
Stars: Suzanne Stoll, Jörg Reichlin, Matthias Habich, Jutta Hoffman, Wolf Kaiser, Klaus Piontek, Michael Gempart, Hans Peter Blumer, Peter W. Lossli, Kurt Bigger, Ulrich Anschütz, Peter Bertschinger, Detlef Bierstedt, Eckhard Bilz, Detlef Bierstedt, Edoardo Gatti, Hans Gaugler, Rainer Gentz, Jürgen Hentsch, Walter Hess, Oskar Hoby, Georg Holzner, Alessandro Ippolito, Peter Kalisch, Beatrice Kessler, Werner Panzer, Elmar Schulte, Wolfgang Schulze, Luciano Simioni, Pierangelo Tomassetti, Franz Viehmann.
Cinematographer: Peter Brand.
Composer: Karl-Ernst Sasse.
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ENCODE:
MP4 | 2.46 GB | 748×576 | 50 FPS | 3000 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Languages: German, Swiss German, Italian Latin | Subtitles: English (hard)
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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 4.18 GB | 928×716 | 50 FPS | 5000 kb/s | AC3 448 kb/s
Languages: German, Swiss German, Italian Latin | Subtitles: English (soft)
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