Mensch ohne Namen

It takes almost 40 minutes for Helene Thimig to appear on screen in her first film role. When she does so, it’s a key scene that shows the actress’s tremendous versatility: she meets a stranger in her house who turns out to be the husband she thought dead. Shot and seriously wounded in the First World War, he spent the last 15 years as an engineer in the Soviet Union with no memories of his former life—until everything came flooding back. The former head of a car factory is now returning to the place that was once his and trying to reconnect with the lives of those who have long forgotten him. At first Thimig’s character is graceful, helpful and smiles kindly—but as soon as the stranger reveals his true identity, her expression darkens into bewilderment and rejection—not so much because she doesn’t believe him, but rather because everything she has believed in over the past few years collapses at that moment...There’s a certain bitter irony that Helene Thimig acts opposite Werner Krauß in this film: he was one of Max Reinhardt’s favourite actors for a long time and enjoyed great success as “Death” in Jedermann, among other roles—and yet he adhered to an ideology that persecuted his mentor and millions of others because of their “race”. (Florian Widegger)

Gustav Ucicky: CAFÉ ELEKTRIC (1927), HOKUSPOKUS (1930), FLÜCHTLINGE (1933), DAS MÄDCHEN JOHANNA (1935), UNTER HEISSEM HIMMEL (1936), DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (1937), DER POSTMEISTER (1940), DAS HERZ MUSS SCHWEIGEN (1944), AM ENDE DER WELT (1947), BIS WIR UNS WIEDERSEHN (1952), DIE HEXE (1954), DIE HEILIGE UND IHR NARR (1957), DER PRIESTER UND DAS MÄDCHEN (1958), DAS ERBE VON BJÖRNDAL (1960)