Comradeship
(Kameradschaft)

G. W. Pabst (1931)
In German & French, with English Titles
1 hour 30 minutes

The LAYKA Lens continued with Comradeship (Kameradschaft), G. W. Pabst’s 1931 film classic. In partnership with our friends at the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), we discussed this gripping, literally groundbreaking film on October 8, 2020.

Set on the French-German border in the years following the First World War, Comradeship tells the story of a mine disaster and the underground effort to rescue the trapped miners that transcends borders of all kinds. Director G. W. Pabst brought together some of the greatest stars of the German stage, including the famed interpreter of Brecht and workers’ songs, Ernst Busch, and the Eastern Galician–born actor Alexander Granach (who we last saw in his over-the-top performance in Nosferatu).

We’ll discuss this moving and timeless film and continued our quarantine-long cinematic inquiry into questions of community, solidarity, and power.

This month, the panel for our discussion of Comradeship included:

Moderator: Boris Dralyuk

Executive Editor, Los Angeles Review of Books

Rob Adler Peckerar

Executive Director, Yiddishkayt

Deniz Göktürk

Professor, UC Berkeley

J. Hoberman

Critic and Author, New York Times, Village Voice
The LAYKA Lens film series is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

VIEW THE TRAILER

Watch a new trailer for Comradeship here. The film is available for streaming on Amazon or Apple TV.