Pioniere in Ingolstadt = Pioneers in Ingolstadt
(DVD) 

Originally produced as a German motion picture in 1971.

Special features: Filmography [text feature]; insert contains essay by Chuck Stephens.

Restoration and subtitling by Taurusfilm-Munich in cooperation with the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation-Berlin ; [editor, Thea Eymèsz ; original music, Peer Rabin ; production designer, Kurt Raab].

Hanna Schygulla, Harry Bär, Irm Hermann, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Walter Sedlmayr, Klaus Löwitsch, Carla Aulaulu, Günther Kaufmann, Burghard Schlicht, Peter Gauhe, Gunter Krää, Hanna Köhler, Sibylle Danzer, Elga Sorbas, Herbert Paetzold, Ekkehard Heinrich, Helmfried Heinrich, Bert Wachela, Kerstin Dobbertin, Heinz Pusl, Thea Eymèsz, Franz Lehar, Willy Segler, Christian Hohoff, Peer Raben, Kurt Raab, Dietrich Lohmann.

A group of military engineers and soldier/laborers arrive in the small town of Ingolstadt, where they will begin the construction of bridge linking it directly with the rest of the country. Alma and Berta are housemaids who see the soldiers as more than a distraction: Berta wants desperately to believe in love, and Alma doesn't believe it can exist. The soldiers are bored, boozing and brawling during their free time, and coldly calculating about the improbability of love. Adapted from a 1929 play by Marieluise Fleisser, the film takes place in Fassbinderland: the Pioneers appear to be young Nazis, Alma's hairstyle and dresses are from the 1940s, but Berta's minidresses are decidedly from the late 1960s. Despite or perhaps because of the arrival of the Pioneers, Ingolstadt's inhabitants seem to be cut off from--yet still part of--the rest of the world, as if the town is encased in glass.

MPAA rating: Not rated.

DVD; Dolby digital mono; full screen presentation, aspect ratio 1.33:1.

In German with optional subtitles in English.

DVD